Nearly seven years after a last-minute trade sent him to another team, Christian Standhardinger’s PBA career arc has looped back to the beginning.
As Christian Standhardinger settled down to be interviewed by the media during the first day of the PBA’s Media Day event at the Le Parc Events Center, he gave everyone a playful reminder.
“You guys know that I’m not with Ginebra anymore, right?” he deadpanned. “Good, good.”
Standhardinger was, of course, referring to the off-season trade that sent him and Stanley Pringle from crowd favorites Barangay Ginebra San Miguel to the Terrafirma Dyip in exchange for Stephen Holt and Isaac Go.
Any knowledgeable PBA fan will immediately recognize that there is a bit of irony here. In 2017, the Dyip, then known as the Kia Picanto, had the top overall pick in the rookie draft. The big prize that year was Standhardinger, and everyone expected him to go no. 1.
Yet, in a move that would have major repercussions for the league culminating in the resignation of Commissioner Chito Narvasa, the Picanto traded the top pick to the San Miguel Beermen for a package of players and picks.
Standhardinger would proceed to bounce around the league, going to the NorthPort Batang Pier and Barangay Ginebra before finally landing with the franchise that originally should have picked him the first place.
Back to the start
For the big man, his PBA arc has now returned to its origin.
“Yes, it went full circle,” he said. “That’s true. I had some teams in between but now it’s almost like it’s my rookie season again. It went full circle.”
And now that he is finally with what was supposed to be his original team, he has his sights set on leading it to where it has never gone before: the semifinals. The team came close in the recent Philippine Cup, upsetting the top seed San Miguel Beermen in the first game of their quarterfinal series before falling in the second game.
“This is what professional basketball is all about.,” he explained. “Just trying to find a new goal and seeing and understanding yourself, finding a new goal, finding out how for the end of the contract and for the rest of the time that we have, how you can affect winning for the next team and how you can support your new teammates. It’s what I have done.
“I think we’re looking solid. Obviously, there’s a certain difference of level of expectations. But I think that all of us, we just want to affect winning and create again or add to the winning culture that has been already created by them.
“Last year, winning one game against San Miguel was a huge upset. So just building up on that and trying to keep it going.”
Good fit
So far, Christian Standhardinger says he has fitted in well with his new teammates and coach.
“It’s very nice. I was welcomed very nicely into the new family and from the coaching staff. Beginning from the coaching staff and ending with the players. I cannot expect or I cannot be happier for a better welcome than I have got. It’s professional basketball. We all know that. It’s not my first trade. I think this is my fourth team now.
“I think I fit well. But you’ve got to ask the coach (John Cardel), right? I don’t want to just assume something.”
When we did ask him, Cardel was all praises for his new center. “Alam naman natin, si C-Stan one of the top big men in the PBA ‘yan. Kaya may pupuntahan na kami sa ilalim.”
The team’s top player, point guard Juami Tiongson, is also looking forward to teaming up with Standhardinger.
“Very nice guy on and off the court,” he told The GAME. “(He) should’ve been MVP at least one time already so I feel like we’ll have more success this year.”
Standhardinger, for his part, feels Tiongson should be the focal point of Terrafirma’s offense.”
“He’s great. He’s a great teammate, too. Actually, we struggled a little bit at the beginning of our practices because we both were overpassing it to each other which is a good sign. We just wanted the other guy to get it, but I told him already and I told everybody that’s his team.
“He still has the youth on his side. I’m just trying to fit a certain role and play around and get him going because if he’s going you can’t really help on him and it’s better for me when I want to penetrate to the zone. If they have to help on me a little bit maybe I can get him a bit more open spots and it’s almost an automatic.”
Standhardinger also thinks Pringle will play a big role for the Dyip this season.
“I think we should not forget about Stanley. He’s an all-star caliber, too. I know it didn’t look like the Stanley we’re used to from four years ago, and I don’t want to put the expectations too high up there, but he’s looking great within this new system and I’m excited to see what will happen when he’s getting unleashed with us this conference.”
Fair warning
For the Governors’ Cup, which opens on Aug. 18, the Dyip will be reinforced by Brandon Edwards. And this early, Standhardinger is issuing a warning to opposing teams.
“The first practice I told him, ‘Wow, you look very strong.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I was a linebacker.’ So we got a linebacker now in the zone, guys. He got good post moves. He’s very strong.
“He got a two-point shot as well and again, I just want to give notice to all the other players and all the other teams out there. We got a linebacker down there bumping and wrestling in the paint.”
At this stage in his career, Christian Standhardinger knows he is no longer the player he was when he first joined the league in 2017. He knows his latest stop might be his most challenging yet, and at the same time, he is ready to cede the spotlight to his younger teammates.
“The difficulties are always different but still, in a way, the same. it is always difficult but there are different challenges to overcome and you have to figure out how to overcome the new challenge of the given team and the given situation that you’re in.
“I don’t want to overstep. I’m at the end of my career. I’m getting old already so I will do the best I can. There’s always a certain role that you have to fit, but in this team Tiongson is the guy. I want him to really get going.”
“If we lose,” C-Stan concluded, half-jokingly, “then it’s his fault, not mine.”
Banner Image from PBA Media Bureau.
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