Passi hosts PBA All-Star spectacle

Passi, Iloilo, also known as “The Sweet City at the Heart of Panay”, is hosting the coming 2023 PBA All-Star Weekend – the first in four years since the pandemic – on March 9-12.

The  PBA All-Star Game, featuring the best and the brightest in Asia’s first play-for-pay league, will be the highlight of the three-day festivities. The Barangay Ginebra duo of Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson emerged as the two highest vote-getters during the  fan balloting.

And like the NBA version of the All-Star Game, the selected players will be divided into two – Team Japeth and Team Scottie. Based on the PBA Draft held at the TV5 studios in Mandaluyong City on Monday, Team Scottie was able to tab the no.1 pick after winning the toss coin supervised by PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial.

Thompson expectedly went for his Barangay Ginebra teammate, Fil-German standout Christian Standhardinger, as his top pick. Aguilar. on the other hand. selected six-time PBA Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo for his first pick in the draft for the season-ending showcase. 

“It will be another star-sudded PBA All-Star game in Passi. Iloilo next month,”said Marcial after the draft that also saw Aguilar choose Tim Cone of Ginebra as coach of Team Japeth and Yeng Guiao of Rain or Shine as coach of Team Scottie.

Draft results showed that Team Japeth will be composed of Japeth Aguilar (Barangay Ginebra), June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel Beer), Jamie Malonzo (Barangay Ginebra), Chris Newsome (Meralco), Roger Pogoy (TNT), LA Tenorio (Barangay Ginebra), Mikey Williams (TNT), Paul Lee (Magnolia), Jeremiah Gray (Barangay Ginebra), Gian Mamuyac (Rain or Shine), Nards Pinto (Barangay Ginebra) and Terrence Romeo (San Miguel Beer).

Team Scottie, on the other hand, consists of Scottie Thompson (Barangay Ginebra), Christian Standhardinger (Barangay Ginebra), CJ Perez (San Miguel Beer), Calvin Abueva (Magnolia), Robert Bolick (NorthPort), Arvin Tolentino (NorthPort), Kevin Alas (NLEX), Jayson Castro (TNT), Stanley Pringle (Barangay Ginebra), Marcio Lassiter (San Miguel Beer), Mark Barroca (Magnolia) and James Yap (Rain or Shine)

The 24 players were selected during the fan voting held from Jan. 25-Feb.15. Named to the reserve list were Gabe Norwood (Rain or Shien), Jeff Chan (NorthPort), Calvin Oftana (TNT) and Jio Jalalon (Magnolia). The four players, who finished No. 25 to No. 28 in the fan voting, will replace the top 24 players in case a player misses the game due to injury.

Meanwhile, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser of NLEX and Justin Arana  of Converge FiberX emerged as the top two picks in the Rookie/Sophomore/Juniors game. Ganuelas-Rosser was picked by coach Caloy Garcia to lead Team Stalwarts. Arana, on the other hand, was selected by Team Greats mentor Richard Del Rosario.

The other much-awaited highlights of the All-Star Weekend are the Obstacle Challenge and the Three-point Shootout. ROBERT ANDAYA