BARANGAY Ginebra San Miguel Kings guard Stanley Pringle is more than excited with his first-ever PBA finals stint in the season-ending PBA Governors’ Cup, which will start on Jan. 7 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Filipino-American guard said during
the pre-finals press conference on Saturday that he made sure to be in shape
during the lengthy break in preparation for their best-of-seven finale with the
Meralco Bolts.
“Definitely I’ll try to get my legs back as soon as possible,” said Pringle. “I
think that would be the perfect amount of time to get my knees back. I expect
everybody to be healthy and ready to go. So it should be an exciting finals.”
He added: “I’m thinking about my rhythm. We had a break, and luckily for me, I
was playing with Gilas, and that kept my rhythm going. Right now, maybe coach
is going to schedule some tune-up games or something, and that’s the biggest
thing to keep your game rhythm. So I’m going to try to find new ways to keep my
rhythm.”
Pringle added that he was delighted to be in the finals but saddened he did it
at the expense of his former team NorthPort Batang Pier, which they defeated in
their best-of-five series, 3-1.
“It’s real big, it’s my first finals appearance,” Pringle said. “I’m going to
give everything I have. They know that, my teammates know that. We’re going to
be ready to play.”
“We’re all brothers off the court. When it comes to that, I want them to play hard, they want me to play hard. Win or lose, after this they’re still going to call me. So it doesn’t matter,” he added, pertaining to his former Batang Pier teammates.
SPORTS YEARENDER (PART 3)
As another historic year closed, let us revisit some of the biggest sports stories we have covered and enjoyed. Third part of this series covers the month of October.
October
Carlos Edriel Yulo earned a qualification in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after
notching a gold medal in the men’s floor exercise event of the 49th Artistic
Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Ceres-Negros FC notched its third straight championship while completing an
unbeaten run in the 2019 Philippines Football League with 22 wins and two draws
without a single defeat for 68 points.
F2 Logistics Cargo Movers retained its crown in the 2019 Philippine Superliga
Invitational after a 25-22, 25-19, 17-25, 22-25, 15-12 win over Petron Blaze
Spikers in the gold medal match.
Blockbuster trades in the PBA as San Miguel Beermen shipped Christian
Standhardinger to NorthPort Batang Pier for Moala Tautuaa, while Blackwater
Elite send Bobby Ray Parks Jr. to TNT KaTropa and Allein Maliksi and Raymar
Jose to Meralco Bolts. (To be continued/PN)
