PBA All-Star Game explained

The PBA All-Star Game is an exhibition game hosted annually by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), matching the league's star players using various formats. It is the featured event of PBA All-Star Weekend. The All-Star game was first staged at The ULTRA on June 4, 1989.

The starting lineup for each squad is selected by a fan ballot, while the reserves are chosen by a vote among the head coaches of the league's teams. If a selected player is injured and cannot participate, the league officials select a replacement. The head coaches of the teams that entered the season's first conference, the Philippine Cup, are chosen as the coaches of the teams in the All-Star Game.

Background

The annual All-Star Game was instituted in 1989 and has already evolved into different types of competition, more commonly in the following formats: Philippine national team vs. PBA All-Stars (last played in 2018), Rookies, Sophomores & Juniors (RSJ) vs. Veterans (last played in 2012), and North vs. South match-up (last played in 2019). The manner by which players to the All-Star Game varied through the years. Currently, the two coaches tapped to lead the two All-Star teams were the ones who selected their players but since the mid-2000s the starting five are selected through fan voting and the reserves would now be the ones chosen by the head coaches of all the PBA teams. 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 collecting the award in 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2003. In its entire history, eight players have been named multiple winners of the All-Star MVP award namely, Meneses, Terrence Romeo (2015, 2017 and 2018), Benjie Paras (1994 and 1999), Asi Taulava (2004 and 2006), Jayjay Helterbrand (2005 and 2007), Arwind Santos (2013 and 2019), Jeff Chan (2013 and 2018), Matthew Wright (twice in 2017) and Japeth Aguilar (2019 and 2024).

James Yap currently holds the record for most number of All-Star Game appearances with 18.^[1]

Types

The league has adopted various formats for the All-Star Game:

• Veterans vs. Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors (RSJ): The Veteran team consists of players who have played in the league for four or more years. The RSJ team consists of players who have played in the league for less than four years.
• North vs. South: The players' team is assigned according to their birthplaces, and in cases of players born outside the Philippines, on their parents' birth places. Players from Luzon play for the North All-Stars, while those from Visayas and Mindanao play for the South All-Stars.
• Philippine men's national team vs. PBA All-Stars: The Philippine team consist of PBA players from national pool with a naturalized player or a cadet player if any. The national team usually carries the name of its primary sponsor or its nickname. (e.g. Philippine Centennial Team, Powerade Team Pilipinas, Gilas Pilipinas)
• Team A vs. Team B: Two All-Star teams with no particular category are formed. This format was used in 1991 (Light All-Stars vs. Dark All-Stars) and 2003 (Commissioner's All-Stars vs. Governors' All-Stars).
  • Since 2023, two All-Star teams are captained by the top two leading vote-getters, then they will pick the players from the list (wherein fans will vote up to 24 players) via draft for their team, similar to the NBA All-Star Game format from 2018 to 2023.

All-Star Game results

This is a list of each All-Star Game, the venue at which it was played, and the Game MVP. Parenthesized numbers indicate multiple times that venue, city, or player has occurred as of that instance (e.g. "Vergel Meneses (2)" in 1998 indicates that was his second All-Star MVP award).

Year	Winning team	Score	Losing team	Host venue	Host city	MVP (PBA team)
	Veterans	132–130	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors			Elmer Cabahug (Alaska)
	Veterans	146–118	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	The ULTRA (2)		Samboy Lim (San Miguel)
	Light Team All-Stars	127–120	Dark Team All-Stars	The ULTRA (3)		Alvin Patrimonio (Purefoods)
	South All-Stars	108–105	North All-Stars	PSC-NASA (4)		Alvin Teng (San Miguel)
	North All-Stars	149–129	South All-Stars			Allan Caidic (San Miguel)
	North All-Stars	133–124	South All-Stars	Cuneta Astrodome (2)		Benjie Paras (Shell)
	Veterans	112–107	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	Cuneta Astrodome (3)		Vergel Meneses (Sunkist)
	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	131–115	Veterans	Cuneta Astrodome (4)		Kenneth Duremdes (Sunkist)
	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	126–123	Veterans	Cuneta Astrodome (5)		Bal David (Gordon's Gin)
		114–109	PBA All-Stars
		107–92	PBA All-Stars			Vergel Meneses (2) (Pop Cola)
	Veterans	91–85	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	PhilSports Arena (5)		Benjie Paras (2) (Shell)
	Veterans	93–78	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors			Vergel Meneses (3) (Barangay Ginebra)
	Veterans	112–105	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors		Quezon City	Danny Ildefonso (San Miguel)
	Governors' All-Stars	124–122	Commissioner's All-Stars	Araneta Coliseum (2)		Vergel Meneses (4) (FedEx)
	South All-Stars	130–128	North All-Stars	Cebu Coliseum (2)		Asi Taulava (Talk 'N Text) Jimmy Alapag (Talk 'N Text) (co-winners)
	North All-Stars	131–128	South All-Stars	Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena		Jayjay Helterbrand (Barangay Ginebra)
	South All-Stars	122–120	North All-Stars			Asi Taulava (2) (Talk 'N Text)
	North All-Stars	145–142	South All-Stars			Jayjay Helterbrand (2) (Barangay Ginebra) Willie Miller (Alaska) (co-winners)
	South All-Stars	163–158 (OT)***	North All-Stars			Peter June Simon (Purefoods)
	PBA All-Stars	97–89		Araneta Coliseum (3)		David Noel (Barangay Ginebra)
	North All-Stars	133–130	South All-Stars	Puerto Princesa City Coliseum		Gabe Norwood (Rain or Shine)
	North All-Stars	133–129	South All-Stars			Marc Pingris (B-Meg Derby Ace)
	Veterans	176–144	Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors	Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena (2)		James Yap (B-Meg)
	PBA All-Stars	124–124 (Draw)		Davao del Sur Coliseum		Arwind Santos (Petron Blaze) and Jeff Chan (Rain or Shine)
	Gilas Pilipinas	101–93	PBA All-Stars			Gary David (Meralco)
	North All-Stars	166–161	South All-Stars	Puerto Princesa City Coliseum (2)		Terrence Romeo (GlobalPort)
	North All-Stars	154–151	South All-Stars	Smart Araneta Coliseum (4)		Alex Cabagnot (San Miguel)
	PBA Mindanao All-Stars	114–114 (Draw)		Xavier University Gym (2)		Troy Rosario (TNT) and Matthew Wright (Phoenix)
		122–111	PBA Luzon All-Stars			Matthew Wright (2) (Phoenix)
		125–112	PBA Visayas All-Stars			Terrence Romeo (2) (GlobalPort)
	PBA Mindanao All-Stars	144–130	Smart All-Stars	Davao del Sur Coliseum (2)		Baser Amer (Meralco)
	Smart All-Stars	152–149	PBA Luzon All-Stars	Batangas City Sports Coliseum		Terrence Romeo (3) (TNT)
	PBA Visayas All-Stars	157–141	Smart All-Stars	University of San Agustin Gym (2)		Jeff Chan (2) (Phoenix)
	North All-Stars	185–170	South All-Stars	Calasiao Sports Complex		Arwind Santos (2) (San Miguel) Japeth Aguilar (Barangay Ginebra) (co-winners)
	Team Japeth	140–136	Team Scottie	City of Passi Arena		Paul Lee (Magnolia)
	Team Japeth	140–140 (Draw)	Team Mark			Japeth Aguilar (2) (Barangay Ginebra) and Robert Bolick (NLEX) (co-winners)

• * MVP from losing team
• ** MVP was Import Player.
• *** The two teams requested for an overtime period to be held.

Head-to-head results

Format	Results
Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors vs. Veterans	Veterans lead, 7–2 in all-time series
North All-Stars vs. South All-Stars	North All-Stars lead, 9–4 in all-time series
PBA All-Stars vs. Philippine National Team	Philippine NT lead, 6–3–2 in all-time series

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2024 PBA All Star: Homecoming for James Yap . pba.ph . March 23, 2024 . March 24, 2024.