CHRISTIAN Standhardinger is in line to become the second player to win the Best Player of the Conference with two different teams.
Standhardinger leads the statistical race in the BPC at the close of the PBA Governors’ Cup eliminations with a 42.8 average statistical points. If he ends up winning the plum, he will follow Calvin Abueva, who captured the BPC award as a player for Alaska in the 2016 Commissioner’s Cup and Magnolia in the 2021 Philippine Cup.
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But Standhardinger, who won his first with NorthPort during the 2019 Governors’ Cup, said the BPC is the farthest in his mind.
Standhardinger also deflected the credit, saying a major reason why he is in contention for the award is because Japeth Aguilar is out.
“It’s like a combination of two things,” said Standhardinger. “Japeth went out and I just knew that I have to step it up. Obviously, as a team, we have to step it up to compensate. Japeth is a national player, a Gilas player, you don’t have to talk about how great Japeth is.”
“I try to elevate my game and try to compensate a little bit in the areas that I can compensate for him. It’s not shot blocking. I couldn’t compensate for his athletic ability but I try to do everything else,” said Standhardinger.
“I got a little bit of minutes because our rotation is short,” said Standhardinger.
Standhardinger added his teammates should also get a lot of credit for getting him in position to be in line for a BPC award, citing one play in their 127-93 win over NLEX in the quarterfinals.
“I have great teammates too. Even today, did you see Scottie? Scottie dribbled, beat a man, beat another man, then jumped, two people jumped and he gave me the ball, and I literally just lay it up. That’s 95 percent of the work. I have great teammates that put me in such great position. It’s nice to play with them,” said Standhardinger.
The 33-year-old said his eye is on the team accomplishment with Ginebra stepping closer to another Governors’ Cup crown by advancing to the semifinals and a date with San Miguel.
“At the end of the day, I’m just happy we are in the playoffs. You know me. I’m all about winning championships,” said the four-time PBA title winner.
“I truly want to win a championship and now is where it’s really (time to) focus,” said Standhardinger.
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