Sixty-one minutes and two seconds.
That was how long Christian Standhardinger was on the court in the NorthPort Batang Pier’s 126-123 triple-overtime win over the NLEX Road Warriors in their 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup do-or-die quarterfinal clash, Wednesday night.
With that, the 6-foot-7 bruiser now owns the record of most minutes played in the league among locals. He surpasses the 61 minutes of center Kerby Raymundo, which he set back in 2006.
“My legs are very tired,” exhaled Standhardinger, who finished with 33 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists, and two steals.
“I’m gonna go to bed and sleep as soon as possible.”
The Filipino-German forward said that he has not played that long before. But his physical fitness — this, after recovering from a knee injury — allowed him to do just that.
“I don’t think so. But I’m doing a good job with my diet and I’m in top shape, so I’m happy.”
Standhardinger takes pride in the stand his teammates put up. The Batang Pier just became the fourth team in league history to upend a top-seeded team while being the number eight squad.
“It feels amazing. I’m very happy but you don’t see it — I’m just so tired. I’m just like calm and happy,” he said.
NorthPort now heads to just its second semifinal appearance in franchise history. And waiting for them is Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, who’s gunning to regain its throne.
Standhardinger is aware of the challenge ahead of them. But for the 30-year-old, regardless of what happens next, the whole crew should be proud of what they have already done.
For him, reaching the semis is a feat in itself considering that they have been together as a team only a short while — Standhardinger only arrived last month via trade from San Miguel Beermen.
“Well, to be honest with you, I’m so happy about making Top Four with this team. We’re a young team. We just got together for one and a half months ago, this is huge,” he said.
“We should really celebrate that we are under the best four teams in this conference. This is a huge accomplishment. Obviously we got to try our best ,but I think we are on the right track to really create a winning culture. No matter if we make it to the finals or not, I think this team needs to be very proud of themselves,” the first overall pick in the 2017 draft added.
“You see, we have the youngest team, and we’re just together for like one and a half months.”
