THE NBA Global Games is hands-down the biggest gathering of basketball stars to hit town, but it won't most likely not be the last.
Top sports patron Manny V. Pangilinan is set to meet with NBA commissioner David Stern with his sights set on setting up a sequel to the successful All-Star extravaganza that brought in Kobe Bryant, Derrick Rose, and Kevin Durant to Manila back in 2011.
“Sana. I want to bring back the NBA All-Stars here,” Pangilinan said in an interview with Spin.ph on Friday. “I might meet with Commissioner Stern tomorrow. Inaareglo na nila (NBA officials). So I will bring it up to him.”
Stern, who is set to step down in February, is in Manila as head of the NBA delegation in the first preseason game to be staged in the country.
Pangilinan spearheaded the milestone 2011 event that saw some of the biggest stars in the NBA play a two-game series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum against a PBA selection and the Gilas team that represented the country in that year's Fiba-Asia championships.
Aside from Bryant, Rose, and Durant, other stars who played in the Smart-backed event were Chris Paul, Derek Fisher, Tyreke Evans, JaVale McGee, and then rookie Derrick Williams.
A blockbuster event certainly deserves an encore, the business tycoon said.
“'Yun ang gusto nating gawin ulit. So hopefully, we can find ways to put it together anew,” he said. “Kaya I will tell Commissioner Stern, ‘Can we borrow some of your NBA stars for an All-Star game here like the last time?’”
The longtime sports patron said it is his wish to give basketball-crazy Filipinos another memorable NBA treat after the 2011 event and the preseason game between the Houston Rockets and the Indiana Pacers which will be played late Thursday night.
Pangilinan will be among the spectators during the Rockets-Pacers match.
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