PBA rolls out All-Star showcase

The PBA All-Star extravaganza gets off to a rousing start with the first of three legs in Digos City, Davao del Sur, today. The second leg shifts to Batangas City on Friday then the third and last leg will be in Iloilo City on Sunday.

The format is similar to what was started in the All-Star edition last year with three separate venues in Cagayan de Oro, Lucena and Lapu-Lapu City. The national team faced three different sets of regional All-Stars in the series. The Mindanao All-Stars held Gilas to a 114-114 standoff then the nationals won, 122-111 and 125-112 in the other two contests.

This time, the regional All-Stars will try to pull the rug from under the national team, dubbed the Smart All-Stars. Because of sponsorship issues, Gilas won’t be used to identify the national squad. Coach Chot Reyes also won’t call the shots for the national team. It will be Meralco’s Norman Black at the helm in Digos City, NLEX’ Yeng Guiao in Batangas City and TNT KaTropa’s Nash Racela in Iloilo City in Reyes’ place.

The Smart All-Stars will line up only players not from the hosting region so that twist makes for an even more interesting confrontation. Black’s Smart All-Stars in Digos City are JuneMar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario, Calvin Abueva, Bryan Cruz, Gabe Norwood, Allein Maliksi, Matthew Wright, R. R. Pogoy, Kiefer Ravena, Terrence Romeo and Jayson Castro. They’re matched up against coach Tim Cone’s Mindanao All-Stars team made up of Scottie Thompson, Mark Barroca, Jio Jalalon, P. J. Simon, Mac Belo, Baser Amer, Cyrus Baguio, Sonny Thoss, Rafi Reavis, Poy Erram, R. R. Garcia and Carlo Lastimosa.

Guiao’s Smart All-Stars are Fajardo, Cruz, Rosario, Belo, Pogoy, Maliksi, Romeo, Norwood, Jalalon and Ravena. Castro, Aguilar, Abueva and Wright will move over to coach Leo Austria’s Luzon All-Stars whose other players are L. A. Tenorio, Paul Lee, Stanley Pringle, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos and Raymond Almazan. Magnolia’s Ian Sangalang was supposed to suit up for the Luzon All-Stars but fractured his hand last Friday and is out of commission. Since the Smart All-Stars will show up with only a 10-man lineup, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial decided not to replace Sangalang and leaves the Luzon squad with 11 players.

Racela’s Smart All-Stars are Aguilar, Rosario, Cruz, Belo, Norwood, Wright, Maliksi, Pogoy, Jalalon, Castro and Abueva. Fajardo, Ravena and Romeo will transfer to coach Chito Victolero’s Visayas All-Stars whose other players are James Yap, Greg Slaughter, J. R. Quinahan, Jeff Chan, Chris Ross, Ronald Tubid (in place of Joe DeVance), Emman Monfort, Asi Taulava and Jericho Cruz.

Fans voted the starters of the Luzon, Mindanao and Visayas All-Stars. Overall, the top five vote-getters were Thompson, Fajardo, Barroca, Yap and Ravena. Marc Pingris had the fourth highest votes for Luzon but isn’t able to play as he’s recovering from an ACL injury. His spot as a starter was taken over by Castro. The Mindanao starters are Thompson, Barroca, Jalalon, Simon and Belo. The Luzon starters are Aguilar, Abueva, Tenorio, Lee and Castro. The Visayas starters are Fajardo, Yap, Ravena, Slaughter and Romeo.

After the fans voted for the starters in the regional teams, the PBA coaches picked the other players to complete each roster. The PBA office and the PBA Press Corps had nothing to do with the selection of the players. The only exception was when DeVance opted out of the Luzon All-Stars on doctor’s orders and Marcial picked Tubid as his replacement. Marcial said Tubid figured creditably in the voting and that’s why he was pulled in.

Marcial pointed out that the selection process had a cut-off of the first week of the current Commissioner’s Cup. Some fans wondered why Chris Newsome, Sean Anthony, Vic Manuel and Shawn McCarthy were left out of the All-Star series but Marcial explained how the selection process went.