After months of anticipation, 2017’s top overall pick Christian Standhardinger finally made his PBA debut on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, it was a debut that he might not want to talk about for some time.
The Filipino-German underperformed in the 19 minutes and 56 seconds he sniffed the court, producing just four points on five shots to go with five rebounds, two assists, and two steals against the Meralco Bolts.
But even with that kind of numbers, Standhardinger still felt like he did pretty good in his first PBA game.
“You know, I think I’m okay,” said the six-foot-eight bruiser after the match. “That’s what I’ve told guys I’m gonna do. I’m not gonna go out here like in the ABL where like I’m the main scorer of the team and try to aggressively get my points.
“I shot five shots, I think, and I’m just trying to facilitiate, get the guys open, put the guys in a right situation. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out today.”
The only thing that made Standhardinger disappointed is that he and the Beermen lost, 85-93, in their 2018 Commissioner’s Cup debut.
“We lost. Everybody saw the game, we lost. That’s unfortunate, that was not good,” added the former Heritage Import of Hong Kong Eastern Basketball.
“We lost, so… Everybody kind of did a bad job. I feel like that.”
Aside from the loss, Standhardinger also felt frustrated with the way whistles were blown in the game. He definitely struggled, as he got called for five personal fouls — a factor that somehow limited his production.
“I just need to adjust to the way the games are called here,” he disclosed.
Standhardinger’s first PBA game is now in the books, and now, an objective of his is to become familiar with everything he has to get accustomed with. And one of it is exercising his dynamics with reigning MVP June Mar Fajardo.
Eyes are on Fajardo and Standhardinger on how their partnership in the frontcourt will turn out, with many dreaded that once they get along well, then the Beermen would just become as close to being invincible.
“I think we could’ve gotten a bit more high-lows. But obviously, the team’s adjusting to that,” shared Standhardinger.
“So I’m looking forward to exploring that. We did not do as good as a job today doing it as we do it, example, in practice.”
