‘My Pinoy grandpa inspired me to play’

Christian Standhardinger. Photo by Randolph B. Leongson/ INQUIRER.net

Christian Standhardinger has been dribbling a ball ever since he was a small boy. In his early years, like most boys growing up in Germany, he did it with his feet in an open grass field.

“I’m a late bloomer (in basketball),” Standhardinger told the Inquirer after Gilas Pilipinas finished fourth in the Jones Cup in Taipei, where he made his international debut for the country. “I have my grandfather to thank for that.”

The 6-foot-8 forward from Munich took to basketball when he was 12, encouraged by Pablo Hermoso, the father of his mom, the former Elizabeth Santos Hermoso. It started his love affair with the sport.

“My grandfather took me to parks whenever he played,” he said of Pablo Hermoso, who saw action for Shell in the CYMCA league in the 1950s. “He was the one who influenced me to [play] basketball. I played whenever he played.”

Standhardinger never forgot his heritage—especially the basketball part of it—that he finally considered a two-year-old offer by Gilas coach Chot Reyes to play for the national team.

“I don’t know what the future brings, but right now, my heart is with my national team,” Standhardinger said.
Volleyball-playing sisters
Indeed, basketball has become a career for Christian, the eldest in a brood of three of Guenther Standhardinger and Elizabeth. His sisters, twins Kathrin and Kristin, are a year younger at 27 and play competitive volleyball.

Like Christian, who went to University of Nebraska and then University of Hawaii, the sisters took their volleyball acts to the United States before returning to Germany after graduation to play in the regional leagues.

Standhardinger applied for the 2014 NBA Rookie Draft but was not selected. (Like him, Jared Dillinger also played for the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors).

The Filipino-German became available for the Gilas squad after his contract with SC Rasta Vechta in Germany’s ProA league expired. He was the league MVP last season.

His trump card has always been his work ethic and how he plays the game.

Gilas character

“Christian plays hard all the way,” Gilas assistant coach Jimmy Alapag says. “He’s exactly the kind of player this team needs, the type of player that fits the Gilas character.”

Standhardinger played his guts out in the Jones Cup, holding his own in a tough international field that saw the Philippines play against a European power in Lithuania, traditional Asian contenders like Iran, South Korea and Chinese Taipei and the experienced Canada 150 side that eventually won the championship.

It’s evident in Taipei that Standhardinger is all heart on the court. In several interviews with the international media, he proudly yelled “Puso!”, the battlecry of the Gilas Nationals.

Standhardinger will suit up in the Fiba Asia tournament in Beirut, Lebanon, replacing Andray Blatche—the country’s naturalized player since the 2014 World Cup in Spain—who refused to go with the team for the Aug. 8 to 20 showcase.

After that, the pony-tailed National will head straight to Kuala Lumpur for the Southeast Asian Games, where the Philippines will try to win its 19th basketball gold and keep its supremacy in the region.

Naturalized player

Standhardinger will play as a naturalized player in the Asian championship and as a Filipino in the SEA Games. His failure to get a Philippine passport before he turned 16 is the thing that’s keeping him from playing as a Filipino in tournaments supervised by the Fiba.

But with dual citizenship, he is eligible to play in the PBA as a local. And that is certainly enticing news for any ball club rebuilding for the next season.