Philippine Basketball Association All-Star Weekend
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Philippine Basketball Association All-Star Weekend is the annual gathering of the best players of the Philippine Basketball Association playing for various events such as the 3-point shootout, skills competition such as Obstacle and Trick-shot challenges, Rookies vs. Sophomores Blitz Game, Slam Dunk competition, Shooting stars, Legends 3-point challenge and culminated by the All-Star Game. It is patterned after the All-Star Weekend of the National Basketball Association.
The annual All-Star Game was instituted in 1989 and has already evolved into different types of competition such as the North vs. South match-up (presently adopted), Rookies, Sophomores & Juniors (RSJ) vs. Veterans, Commissioners All-Stars vs. Governors All-Stars, etc. The manner by which players to the All-Star Game were selected has also been changed as the same was again patterned before the NBA type of selection. Originally, the two coaches tapped to lead the two All-Star teams were the ones who selected their players but over the years the starting five are now selected through fan voting and the reserves would now be the ones chosen by the coaches. For the 2005-2006 season, fans from the host city or province were given the choice to select the sixth man of each team. After each game, an All-Star Most Valuable Player (MVP) was chosen by writers covering the annual event.
Vergel Meneses had clearly stamped his mark on this mid-year festivities as he remains to be the only four-time All-Star MVP awardee bagging the award in 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2003. In its entire history, only two players have been named multiple winners of the All-Star MVP award namely, Meneses and Benjie Paras who won the award in 1994 and 1999.
Jerry Codiñera, Alvin Patrimonio and Meneses are the only players with at least 10 All-Star appearances since its inception.
Last year the winners in the All-Star Weekend are as follows: (a) South over North, 122-120 in the main All-Star Game with Asi Taulava named All-Star MVP, (b) Sophomores over the Rookies, 130-123 with Nelbert Omolon emerging as MVP, (c) Willie Miller in the Obstacle and Trick Shot Challenges, (d) William Antonio in the 3-point shootout, (e) Niño Cañaleta in the Slam Dunk competition, (f) Tony dela Cruz in the shooting stars event and (f) the team of Jojo Lastimosa, Ricardo Marata and Boybits Victoria in the Legends Shootout.
