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| The PBA All-Star Weekend is already underway in Candon. Peter Baltazar |
MANILA--In a one-night-only stint, Willie Miller, Ranidel De Ocampo, Arwind Santos, and Marc Pingris are making their way back to the PBA as they will backstop the league's young guns in the Rookie-Sophomore-Junior Blitz Game on Friday night at the Candon City Arena.
Pingris, currently the only active player among the four PBA legends, as he is part of Binan in the MPBL, will join his fellow former Gilas comrade De Ocampo with the junior team.
On the other hand, Miller and Santos join forces to team up with the rookie-sophomore alliance.
Miller, now 48, vowed that they will keep up with their more athletic competitors, although he, too, hopes that they will not be forced to keep up a bit too much so that they do not get hurt in the process.
“Matanda ka o hindi, ayaw mo patalo,” said Miller on Thursday during the PBA All-Star Weekend press launch at Hotel Van Gogh in the said city.
"Hopefully, wala kami ma-pull (na muscles).”
On the other hand, De Ocampo, a nine-time All-Star, misses participating in the mid-season festivities, which is one of the PBA's ways to interact with its fans more.
“Iyun ang pinaka-namiss ko kasi gustong gusto kong nakikita na masasaya ang mga tao, nagpapa-picture, nakikipag-usap, at masaya sila kasi andun kami,” said De Ocampo, adding that he loved traveling to schools and communities for the fans to get a chance to be closer to their hardwood heroes.
Aside from the media launch, the PBA All-Star delegation also interacted with the fans via a motorcade throughout the city and visited Candon South Central School and Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College, where the league donated PHP300,000 and PHP200,000, respectively, to each academe.
Friday began with a tree-planting activity at the Candon Eco-Tourism Park.
The basketball side of things begins on Friday night, first with the side events at 5:30 p.m., featuring the obstacle challenges for both big men and guards and the three-point shootout.
The blitz game will follow at 7:30 p.m.
Then on Sunday night, the Shooting Stars challenge will commence, to be capped by the All-Star Game pitting the North and South All-Stars.
