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The
Standings:
NBA
PBA
MBA
PBL
Feature:
Pictures
from the NBA All-Star Game 2000
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Green light for
ABC-PBA All-Star Extravaganza
on August 6
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By Evihore Lopez
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FOR more than a decade now, the question in every Filipino's mind
remains to be the one regarding the country's capabilities of regaining
basketball supremacy in Asia. |
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The Philippines came close to bagging gold in the Asian Games in 1990
when the Philippine Basketball Association sent a crack selection
to the Hiroshima Asian Games. And just when everyone thought that
the next time would be a golden stint came a crash for the Philippine
Team like no other, when, in 1994, the core of the All-Filipino Cup
champion San Miguel crew finished out of the money and went home medal-less.
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The Philippines' most ambitious stab at regaining Asian glory came
four years later, but the Centennial Team wound up two notches short
of the gold and had to fight it out tooth-and-nail before eventually
prevailing in the bronze medal match with Kazakhstan. |
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Last year saw the influx of the huge and athletic Fil-foreign players,
and every Juan dela Cruz who knows his basketball readily gives the
Philippines a chance of striking gold in the next Asian Games. |
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The Centennial Team is a thing of the past now, what the PBA can do
is assemble an even meaner squad with which the hopes of this country
can be pinned on once again. |
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And everyone gets the chance to see just how much a new Philippine
Team would fare in the next Asian Games when the PBA puts into battle
a selection against the Asian All-Stars sometime in August during
the pro league's Annual All-Star Week. |
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indication points to a selection being formed," said PBA Commissioner
Jun Bernardino yesterday during the formal launch of the Asian Basketball
Confederation's All-Star trip to Manila later this year where a crack
team from all the countries participating in the ABC will be formed
to do battle with the best of the PBA. |
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It will be a one-game affair with no less than three of the best players
from China and some of those from Japan and Korea will form the nucleus
of the Asian All-Star Team. |
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Bernardino was joined by Tom McCarthy and Yeoh Choo-hok of the ABC
and Basketball Association of the Philippines president Freddie Jalasco
during the press conference at the Century Park Hotel. |
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McCarthy bared that three invitations have been sent to the Chinese
National Team for Wang Zhi-zhi, Yao Ming and Hu Wei-Dong, and is also
optimistic that they will be able to join the trip, this being just
a one-game affair. |
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Rony Seikaly, the former Orlando Magic in the National Basketball
Association, is another name whom McCarthy hopes would be able to
make the trip. Seikaly is a native of Lebanon and is not in any NBA
roster this year. |
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From the Centennial Team of 1998, additions like Eric Menk, Sonny
Alvarado, Asi Taulava and Danny Seigle could be made to make the Philippine
side even more formidable. |
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And Bernardino does now discount this possibility. He also bared that
the man who will call the shots would be the champion coach of the
on-going Alaxan All-Filipino Cup. |
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| from:
PBA Online posted
on April 27, 2000 |
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© 2000
IHTML & Maria Jose All Rights Reserved.
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