CHRISTIAN Standhardinger, the Fil-German big man now making waves for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2017 Fiba Asia Cup, has signed to play for Hong Kong Eastern Lions in the coming Asean Basketball League (ABL) season, his sports agent confirmed.
Sports agency YouFirst posted a photo on its official Twitter account on Friday announcing the 6-8 center is set to join the reigning ABL champions. German sports website basketball.de bared Standhardinger will play for the Eastern Lions both in the ABL and Hong Kong's top league.
YouFirst manages the careers of several players across a number of sports, including Kristaps Porzingis of the New York Knicks and Serge Ibaka of the Toronto Raptors.
Philippine Star columnist Quinto Henson was the first to report about Standhardinger's move to HK.
Although Standhardinger has yet to confirm the decision, the move to Hong Kong augurs well for Gilas in terms of the naturalized player's availability for future international tournaments.
However, the move still comes as a surprise to not a few people who expected the Gilas player to become one of the top prospects in the coming PBA rookie draft.
Standhardinger, who played for two schools in the US NCAA and had extensive experience in the top tiers of the German pro leagues, had previously confirmed to SPIN.ph that he is not under contract with any German club prior to leaving for Manila.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
