By Waylon Galvez
Instead of being bothered by trade rumors, San Miguel Beer’s Fil-German rookie Christian Standhardinger is keeping his focus on making a full recovery from a left knee injury which has kept him out for quite some time in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The 6-foot-8 Standhardinger, the No. 1 overall pick, has missed the team’s last two games against NLEX last June 23 and TNT KaTropa last June 16, both of which the Beermen won.
The last time he played was in a 98-94 loss to GlobalPort last June 13 when Standhardinger went scoreless in 11 minutes and 35 seconds, missing all of his four tries from the field. He added three rebounds, the same number of shot blocks and a pair of turnovers.
That so-so performance raised some speculations from league observers that Standhardinger, 28, might be traded – sooner or later. But just don’t tell that to him.
“I’m not worried about those scams,” said the former player of Hawaii and Nebraska, referring to trade speculations.
“I didn’t even hear about me getting traded anywhere.
“I think that San Miguel Beer organization is professional so far, and they are all professional. So I’m pretty sure that I am the first one to know that I’ll get traded or not.”
What’s been the cause of Standhardinger’s frustrations these days is the fact that he was forced to sit out the Beermen’s last two matches since SMB coach Leo Austria opted to make a calculated approach and not take any risks regarding the injury.
During a practice session with the 3×3 national team early this month, Standhardinger hurt his left knee and since then, he has been recovering from a patellofemoral pain syndrome and an iliotibial band syndrome.
“Not being able to contribute is frustrating,” said Standhardinger, who is averaging 12.20 points, 7.20 rebounds and 1.40 assists this conference as backup to four-time league MVP June Mar Fajardo.
“But I’m doing okay. I’m doing fine with my recovery. It’s nothing major… but it’s something you have to wait to be back 100 percent, and I don’t have to worry about anything else.”
“I don’t want to drag this little thing with me the whole career with San Miguel. It’s going to be tough because I have to go back and be in game shape, and obviously the team is winning right now so that’s great.”
