Marquee big men June Mar Fajardo and Christian Standhardinger used to match up against each only during San Miguel Beer's practices, away from public eye.
But last Wednesday, the PBA's premier slotmen brought this titanic showdown out in the open as Fajardo and the Beermen and Standhardinger and his new team NorthPort faced off in an exciting Governors' Cup gig at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Fajardo won the battle with his former SMB backup statswise, banging in 22 points of a 7-of-8 shooting clip, collaring 14 boards and having one back against the Fil-German's 18-5 and seven assists.
Ultimately, Standhardinger had the last laugh as NorthPort upstaged the Beermen, 127-119, with Standhardinger punctuating his rousing NP debut with a dagger jumper over Fajardo for a seven-point Batang Pier cushion with 1:01 left.
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"June Mar is a great player, so I'm happy I was able to hit that shot over him and help our team win," said Standhardinger, who swapped places with Mo Tautuaa in a shocking trade last week.
The SMB behemoth refused to make this a Fajardo-Standhardinger outing.
"Okay lang. Hindi naman ito about kay Christian at sa akin, about San Miguel and NorthPort yan, eh. Ayun, panalo sila, congrats sa NorthPort, bounceback na lang kami next game," said Fajardo.
For his part, Standhardinger said of Fajardo: "Oh, my God. I thought I did a good job. I worked my butt off to stop him and he still scored 22 and had a great percentage . He's a great, great player, I have nothing but respect for him.
"I'm gonna watch the film, see how I can do a better job against him (next time). He's an awesome player, a humble guy, what can we say? There's a reason he's, I don't know, 20 times MVP." he said.
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On his debut for coach Pido Jarencio, Standhardinger saw action for 45 minutes and 33 seconds, far longer than he's used to at San Miguel.
"I missed a lot of shots (10 in all). After two years sitting on the bench, it's hard to get into your rhythm, right? So I just try to do my best. The shots I took, I feel very comfortable with. Maybe I just need to be working on them and keep playing and they will go in and I think I can help NorthPort a lot more," he said.
It's essentially a statement game for Standhardinger, who lurked in the shadows of Fajardo over at SMB.
"I played in Europe, I played everywhere. When I played with San Miguel, I played, what, 16 minutes a game? I say that very respectfully, but I have to prove something to the coaching staff wherever I play. And I have to prove to them that I think they made a mistake.
"Maybe they did not make a mistake and they played me the right way because we won two championships and that's okay. But me as a player, I can't just sit down and be like 'okay, the coaching staff didn't think I am good.' And that's how it is now. I gotta be the player that I can be, and I play my heart out to prove to the coaching staff, to (SMB) coach Leo (Austria) that he could've played me more and I could've helped more. But that's how it is," he said.
Standhardinger whispered something to Austria after the buzzer but both player and coach kept the exchange to themselves.(OL)
