Christian Standhardinger never thought he would be in the discussion for the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup’s top individual award.
And so he felt surprised when he was crowned as the Best Player of the Conference Wednesday evening, prior to Game Four of the Finals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco.
“This is completely unexpected. I was surprised that I was even nominated, to be honest with you,” he said.
Of course, the 30-year-old forward feels immensely grateful and honored to receive the award, where he beat out June Mar Fajardo, Jayson Castro, CJ Perez, and Kiefer Ravena.
“It was completely unexpected and really surprised that I got that, but I’m honored and I appreciate it,” he said.
Standhardinger, though, dedicated the BPC plum to his teammates, saying that it should be more of a team award since his fellow Batang Pier were of great help to him this conference.
The Fil-German bruiser and his whole crew made noise in the tilt, becoming the fourth eight-seeded team in league history to upset the top dogs after beating NLEX in the quarters.
“I have to really appreciate my teammates. They put me in a great position. It was so much fun last conference to play with them and to fight with them,” Standhardinger said.
“I feel like this is more of a team award than it is anything else, and I’m really just thankful to my coach in NorthPort (Pido Jarencio) and to my teammates that it worked out.”
At the end of the day, though, Standhardinger would still prefer to win a championship. But that doesn’t take away his appreciation of being named the conference’s best performer.
“A championship is so much more than a personal award. Ten out of ten times, I’d exchange it for one championship,” said the two-time PBA champion.
“But that doesn’t take away the fact that I am really honored to get this award, and [thank you] to everybody involved, starting from the coaches, my family, from the people that I surrounded myself and that I love.”
