Seeded teams strut wares in NBL opener

Two games featuring four of the top-rated teams will kick off the first National Basketball League (NBL) national championship on Saturday at the Gov. Angel Medina Sr. gym in Ozamiz City.

It will be reigning Interclub champion Spring Cooking Oil-Bulacan against Cebu’s M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala at 5 p.m. and Compak Shineway-Ozamiz against Air Philippines-Bacolod Flights at 7 o’clock in the initial doubleheader of the tourney sponsored by Fortune Tobacco, Air Philippines, Gatorade and Molten Basketballs.

The other teams in the tourney called by the organizers as "Ang Ligang Pinoy" are the Pampanga Dragons, Tarlac Stallions, Negros Oriental and Forward Taguig.

"The NBL is here to push the development and promotion of basketball in the regional level," said NBL vice president Nathaniel "Tac" Padilla yesterday when he guested at the PSA Forum together with secretary general Tito Palma, Bacolod’s Butch Disini and Louie Kierulf, whose outfit Silverstar Communications will televise the games over Channel 13.

Kenny Evans, one of the top Talk N Text point guards in last year’s PBA, will spark the bid of coach Bobby Parks’ Spring Cooking Oil Masters.

Other well-known former MBA stars and ex-collegians like Ozamiz’s Egay Echavez and Steve Marucot, Pampanga’s Dave Bautista and Billy Bansil, Spring’s Tyrone Bautista and Jay Lapinid, Taguig’s Kim Macanig and Robin Mendoza and Tarlac’s Joseph Gumatay and Francis Sanz will see action.