MANILA – Stanley Pringle is hopeful to make his debut with new team Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings during their 2019 Honda PBA Commissioner’s Cup game on Sunday against NLEX Road Warriors at the Batangas City Coliseum.
The 32-year-old guard arrived in the crowd-favorite Kings via a two-team, four-player trade earlier this week that saw Solomon Mercado, Kevin Ferrer and Jervy Cruz move to the NorthPort Batang Pier.
“I’m here but it hasn’t hit me yet. It will probably hit me when I started to play a game or something,” said Pringle, who has not played a couple of games for the Batang Pier due to surgery to remove bone spurs in his ankle during the offseason.
“I’m just focused on learning the offense and learning the spots and just trying to learn and soaking it in as fast as I can, so that I can do anything to help the team win,” he added.
Kings head coach Tim Cone is as excited as Pringle to have him on the floor against the Road Warriors but is being cautious with the latter coming from injury and has yet to grasp the team’s system.
“As long as he can practice, we didn’t see anything that is holding him back. I know that when he takes his shoe off, there’s a little bit of bleeding because his stitches are not completely out and there is still a lot of pressure at the bottom of his foot,” Cone said.
“If he wants to, we’re certainly not going to hold him back but we also want to be smart with that,” he added. “We’ve got a lot to teach him in terms of system and he has to learn from playing with his teammates.”
The former PBA Rookie of the Year is expected to be a huge addition to the Commissioner’s Cup defending champions as he will formed a formidable backcourt with veterans LA Tenorio and Earl Scottie Thompson./PN
