Arwind A. Santos is a Filipino professional basketball player for the San Miguel Beermen of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). He is also serves as assistant coach for Far Eastern University in the UAAP.
In the 2009–10 season, his first year with the San Miguel franchise, he shared stellar minutes with the likes of Jay Washington, Dondon Hontiveros, Danny Seigle and Alex Cabagnot. Because of this his averages dipped a bit as he posted averages of 14.6 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.1 spg and 1.2 bpg. He again made it to the Mythical First Team (3rd-straight) and All-Defensive Team (4th time in 4 years).
In the first round of the 2010–11 Philippine Cup, San Miguel compiled an 11–3 record while Santos averaged 16.6 points per game. In the 2011 PBA Governors Cup, he was awarded with the Best Player of the Conference. He also led his team to an improbable championship in the Governor’s Cup conference over the highly favored Talk ‘N Text team who were aiming to complete a rare grand slam. In so doing, he was named the Phoenix Fuels-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP. At season’s end, Santos posted averages of 15.3 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.0 spg and 1.3 bpg on the way to earning berths in the Mythical First Team and All-Defensive Team for the 4th and 5th year in a row, respectively. Due to his strong showing, he was a prime candidate for the MVP award alongside Barangay Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa and Talk ‘N Text’s Jimmy Alapag. However, in the end, Santos finished a close second to Alapag in the MVP derby with 1,687 points as against the latter’s 1,888 points. Caguioa finished a close 3rd with 1,317 points.
In the 2011–12 season, Arwind Santos led Petron Blaze Boosters to a pair of semifinal showings in the PBA Philippine Cup and PBA Governors Cup in a rather disappointing season for him and the team that led to speculations that coach Agustin is now on the way out. However, individually, Santos had another good season posting averages of 15.00 ppg (690 points in 46 games), 10.67 rpg (491 rebounds), 1.33 apg (61 assists), 0.91 spg (42 steals) and 1.43 blkpg (66 blocks). Because of his sterling performance, he was again amply rewarded at season’s end with another Mythical First Team citation, his 5th in his 6 years in the league, and his 6th consecutive membership in the All-Defensive Team. He was again a strong candidate for the coveted MVP award by placing second in the statistical points behind Gary David of Powerade Tigers. However, in the final balloting, Santos ended up in 4th place behind eventual MVP Caguioa of Barangay Ginebra, David and James Yap of B-Meg Llamados. This was the second straight year that Santos and Caguioa figured prominently for the highest individual accolade.
In the 2012–13 season, Santos led the Petron Blaze Boosters to a runner-up finish in the season-ending Governors Cup against the San Mig Coffee Mixers in a series that went the distance, 3–4. While his team lost the championship, Santos bagged his second BPC award in the season-ending Governor’s Cup by edging out teammates June Mar Fajardo and Alex Cabagnot. After 5 years of frustration by coming out as bridesmaid in the MVP balloting, he finally won his first-ever MVP award with a total of 2,840 points beating out Barangay Ginebra’s LA Tenorio (2,819) and Talk N’ Text’s Jayson Castro (1,682). He also made it to the Mythical First Team for the sixth straight year and the All-Defensive Team for the seventh straight year. During the season, Santos also claimed the All-Star MVP alongside Jeff Chan.
In the Philippine Cup of the 2014–15 PBA season, Arwind Santos led the San Miguel Beermen to the championship alongside current MVP June Mar Fajardo in a grueling 7-game series against the Alaska Aces. For his consistent play in the Finals, Santos was named the Petron Sprint 4T Finals MVP by posting averages of 18.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, 2.2 assists and 1.4 steals, his second Finals MVP award.
On October 14, 2016 Arwind Santos was recognized during the PBA Leo Awards Night as he was named to the PBA Mythcial First Team.
