Christian Standhardinger just redefined what ball is life means, Saturday evening.
Coming straight from the airport as he had just arrived from the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Filipino-German forward – who averaged 20.6 points and 10.2 rebounds in the continental meet – suited up and helped San Miguel Beermen in their Governors’ Cup opener at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Manila has crazy traffic,” quipped the amiable Standhardinger with a chuckle. “The traffic is ridiculous. It took me two hours, I was sweating bullets.
“I didn’t want to miss the game, but we made it – kind of – on time, you know.”
Barely 24 hours after dropping 27 points and 15 rebounds to help Gilas Pilipinas pound Syria by 54, 109-55, and clinch the Asiad’s fifth place, Standhardinger turned to another solid performance, as if he had never left the Beermen.
The 6-foot-8 forward set a PBA career-best of 36 points on 14-of-17 shooting from the field, along with 11 rebounds and three steals to power San Miguel to a 125-112 victory over NLEX to kick off their conference on a high note.
Photo from PBA Images
“My teammates just did a great job of finding me and getting me open,” said Standhardinger, who played for just 27 minutes and 44 seconds and finished with the game’s highest efficiency rating at plus-25.
“I just finished.”
San Miguel head coach Leo Austria, as expected, sung high praises towards their first overall pick in the 2017 Draft.
“I have to appreciate Christian, dahil alam naman natin na pagod siya,” said Austria. “He played in the Asian Games and I think it helps a lot, yung kanyang experience dun. Yung ginawa niya dito parang yung nilaro niya sa Asian Games.”
What Standhardinger did was heroic in its own right. But for him, it was just his desire to give back to his mother team that led him to do so.
“You know, San Miguel, I felt like they showed great commitment to the national team, and I did not want them to have a disadvantage in the first game and that is why it was important for me to play,” shared the 29-year-old.
“Obviously there’s a huge commitment of my side to the San Miguel organization.”
