From chief backup to the PBA Governors' Cup's Gatorade Best Player of the Conference.
NorthPort's Christian Standhardinger, who lurked under the shadows of five-time MVP June Mar Fajardo during his time with fully-stacked San Miguel Beer, came into his own as the Batang Pier's top gun and his breakout performance was aptly rewarded with his first BPC accolade.
Standhardinger beat no less than Fajardo for the top plum in the season-ending tournament.
The Fil-German amassed 1,011 total points in the final tally, getting 396 statistical points, 433 points from media votes, 32 points from player votes, and 150 points from votes from the PBA, to win it over Fajardo (657) as well as TNT's Jayson Castro (615), Columbian Dyip's rookie CJ Perez (506) and NLEX's Kiefer Ravena (481).
Meralco's Allen Durham won his third Best Import of the Conference plum, climbing to No. 2 all time behind the late Bobby Parks, Sr., who owned the standard at seven.
Durham tallied 1,170 total to beat Barangay Ginebra's Justin Brownlee (937) and TNT's KJ McDaniels (635).
"I have to really appreciate my teammates, they put me in a great position. It was so much fun last conference to play with them, to fight with them," he said.
"I feel like it should be a team award and I'm really thankful to my coach and my teammates that it worked out well."
The 6-foot-8 bruiser became the first player to win the BPC in the same conference where he switched teams.
Standhardinger suited up for SMB in the first two conferences, sharing twin championships with the Beermen, and was later shipped to NorthPort in the middle of the season-ending Governors' Cup. Source : PBA.PH