PBA All Stars to test RP team; fans balloting up

MANILA, Philippines - Two PBA All-Star teams will give the RP men’s basketball squad of coach Yeng Guiao the tune up games it needed as they take on the Nationals in a three-game series highlighting the 2009 staging of the annual All-Star festivities.

Starters comprising the North and South All-Stars will be determined via fan balloting, while the seven reserves are to be picked by coaches of the league’s 10 teams.

Talk n Text and Alaska battled it out in the last Philippine Cup Finals with the Tropang Texters winning in seven games, thus earning the coaching slots for Chot Reyes and Tim Cone.

Formal voting for the All-Star event begins on Wednesday until the end of the month and will be held in the playing venues at the Araneta Coliseum, Ynares Center and the Cuneta Astrodome.

Fans can also vote at the PBA website, www.pba.ph.

This year marks the special hosting of the All-Star games slated April 22-26, beginning in Victorias, Negros Occidental, makes a brief stopover in Panabo, Davao, before culminating with a big showdown at the Big Dome.

Fans in Victorias and Panabo, where the PBA held road games in the past, also have the chance to select their list of starters for the North and South teams by voting in their respective provinces on March 21 and 28.

Each All-Star team will be reinforced by three imports currently playing in the Fiesta Cup. The Commissioners Office headed by Sonny Barrios is in-charge of selecting the imports likely to see action.

Reyes is set to call the shots for the North squad as it plays Asi Taulava and company in Negros Occidental on April 22, before Cone and his South team take on the Nationals on April 24 in Panabo.

The All-Star team set to play on April 26 at the Araneta Coliseum will be composed of the starters of both North and South and is going to be reinforced by the four remaining imports left out by the Commissioners Office. Handling the team is Reyes.

The three All-Star games serve as a tune-up for Guiao and the rest of the Nationals as they train and gear up for the coming FIBA-Asian men’s basketball championship in China. The tournament serves as the qualifying meet for the 2010 World Basketball Championships.

Aside from Taulava, the RP team roster includes Kerby Raymundo, James Yap, Willie Miller, Sonny Thoss, Mick Pennisi, Ryan Reyes, Kelly Williams, JayJay Helterbrand, Arwind Santos, Ranidel De Ocampo, Jared Dillinger, Gabe Norwood and Cyrus Baguio.