Barangay Ginebra San Miguel finally acquired Christian Standhardinger from NorthPort in exchange for Greg Slaughter after the PBA gave the green light for the long-rumored trade to become a reality.
The PBA said Friday, March 5, 2021 that its trade committee approved the one-for-one deal the other day, paving the way for Standhardinger to join the league’s most popular ballclub and for Slaughter to begin his return from a one-year layoff with a new team.
Rumors that the trade will push through have been brewing for more than a year, and it was reportedly cited as the reason for Slaughter’s decision to take a break from basketball.
Ginebra and Slaughter eventually were to settle things, with coach Tim Cone even saying that the 7-footer had signed an extension several weeks ago.
But now Slaughter will bid goodbye to the team he had played since being selected as the top overall pick of the 2013 PBA Draft with a chance to regain his status as one of the league’s best centers at NorthPort.
In return, Ginebra got Standhardinger, who will play for his third team after he was chosen No. 1 by San Miguel Beer in 2017.
Standhardinger leaves NorthPort after more than a year where he capitalize on having major minutes to help NorthPort reach the 2019 Governors’ Cup semifinals in the process win the Best Player of the Conference.
NorthPort struggled in last season’s PBA Philippine Cup bubble with a 1-10 record, but Standhardinger managed to put up big numbers of 19.9 points, 12.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals.
The Fil-German will now try to fit right in with a talented Ginebra squad set to defend its Philippine Cup crown.
The trade once again made San Miguel Corporation a big winner in the offseason after Ginebra’s sister teams acquired talented players in separate deals.
San Miguel got CJ Perez from Terrafirma in late-January while Magnolia took Calvin Abueva from Phoenix Super LPG several weeks ago.