By JONAS TERRADO
Stanley Pringle paid tribute to his Barangay Ginebra San Miguel teammates after emerging as the winner of the coveted PBA Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference award.
Pringle placed sixth in the Statistical Points race but his consistent play during Ginebra’s successful title run in the bubble was able to convince voters composed of the media, players and the PBA Commissioner’s Office of his worthiness for the honor as the “Bubble MVP.”
“I always believe that you shouldn’t really look at your stats unless it’s turnovers or maybe field goal percentage,” Pringle said after his name was announced in Sunday’s PBA Awards Night which aired on TV5 and its online platforms.
“But like I said, I ain’t really looking at my stats, I’m here to help the team win. And as far as awards, your teammates are gonna put you in the position to win so it’s just as much as their award as yours so shoutout to all my teammates.
“That’s it. It’s their award too,” added Pringle, who edged Phoenix Super LPG’s Matthew Wright in the closest BPC race in history with 1,640 points as compared to 1,578 for the latter.
Some of Pringle’s teammates were able to receive honors during the hour-long event, with Aguilar getting a spot in the Elite Five, Prince Caperal taking home the Most Improved Player and Scottie Thompson bagging the Samboy Lim Sportsmanship Award.
Pringle is the seventh Ginebra player to claim the BPC, joining Marlou Aquino (1996 Governors’ Cup), Eric Menk (2004 Fiesta Conference and 2004-05 Philippine Cup), Mark Caguioa (2006-07 Philippine Cup, 2012 Commissioner’s Cup and 2012 Governors’ Cup), Jayjay Helterbrand (2008 and 2009 Fiesta Conference), LA Tenorio (2013 Commissioner’s Cup) and Greg Slaughter (2017 Governors’ Cup).
It was Pringle’s biggest individual award since joining the PBA. He had previously won the Rookie of the Year in the 2014-15 season and was a Mythical First Team selection in 2017-18, achieving both feats while still playing for GlobalPort (now NorthPort)
