THE PBA Commissioner’s Office summoned Christian Standhardinger and Franky Johnson for the pre-game incident that marred Game 2 of the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco.
Standhardinger vs Johnson update
The two players are set for an appearance at the league office hours before the do-or-die encounter between the two rival teams for a semifinals berth in the season-opening meet.
Standhardinger and Johnson got into each other during the pre-game warmups at the Filoil EcoOil Arena in San Juan.
As per eyewitnesses account, the two got into a little shoving incident that ended up with Johnson reportedly throwing the ball hard to Standhardinger.
Cooler heads prevented the incident from escalating, before the two players were talked to by the technical officials led by deputy commissioner Eric Castro prior to the game.
“I immediately called the two and talked to them sa court during warmup,” said Castro.
"Nagsimula lang daw sa tinginan," he added. "And as per Franky Johnson, Christian shoved him a little that's why he threw the ball at him."
It appeared the incident was a prelude to the highly-physical encounter that saw the Kings prevailed, 94-87, to forge a do-or-die encounter for the last two semifinals berth at stake.
Standhardinger played 40 minutes and came up with a near triple-double of 15 points, 12 rebounds, and seven assists in the win that evened the best-of-three series at 1-1.
Johnson meanwhile, didn’t see action, but was on the Meralco bench.
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