PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial conducts a coin toss ahead of the PBA All-Star Draft. PBA Images.
MANILA, Philippines -- Scottie Thompson went for a familiar face as his first pick in the PBA All-Star Draft on Monday, as he selected Barangay Ginebra teammate Christian Standhardinger.
In response, Barangay Ginebra forward Japeth Aguilar -- the top vote-getter among players -- selected six-time PBA Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo with his own top pick.
The draft was conducted at the conclusion of fan voting last February 15, which saw the two Ginebra stars emerge as top vote-getters and thus earn the distinction of being the captains of the All-Star teams.
After a coin toss conducted by PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, Tim Cone -- the top vote-getter among coaches -- was assigned to call the shots for Team Japeth. Yeng Guiao became the coach for Team Scottie.
Another coin toss worked in favor of Thompson as he got to pick first in the All-Star Draft, and the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player made the most of it as he selected his own Barangay Ginebra teammate.
Thompson selected San Miguel's CJ Perez with the second pick while Aguilar took Jamie Malonzo in response.
The rest of the draft for the All-Star Game played out as follows:
The PBA's All-Star festivities will take place in Passi City, Iloilo on March 12.
"We always wanna win. In All-Star games, I think it's really the coach who wants to win more than the players," said Cone. "These are new players, so you wanna have fun with them as well, and you wanna make sure they have fun, and you wanna make it entertaining for our fans."
"I'm looking forward to just having fun. Of course, coach Tim Cone said that coaches really wanna win. Tinanong ko si Kume, may premyo ba ang mananalo? Meron daw so siyempre gusto naming manalo," Guiao said, for his part.
Meanwhile, coaches Richard del Rosario and Caloy Garcia will be calling the shots for Team Greats and Team Stalwarts, respectively, in the rookies-sophomores-juniors game.
Both coaches went for big men with their first picks, with Garcia taking Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser of the NLEX Road Warriors, while del Rosario selected Justin Arana of the Converge FiberXers.
Here is how the draft for the RSJ game played out:
This is the first time that the PBA All-Star Game will be held since 2019, as the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the league from holding the festivities in the next three years.
There will be four reserves for the All-Star Game: Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, and Jio Jalalon. The four players can be called up in case any of the original 24 All-Stars will be unavailable due to injuries.
For the RSJ game, the reserves are: Alec Stockton, Andrei Caracut, Aljun Melecio, and Kent Salado.
PBA Season 47 games can be streamed live and on-demand on iWantTFC with a Premium subscription, available worldwide except PH and US.