PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines—The North-South game may be the main event of the 2015 PBA All-Star Weekend, but the real competition between the two squads begins even before tipoff.
Before first-time All-Stars Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle show off their crossovers, they will have to bust out their dance moves first as the South and North go head-to-head in a dance off.
“We’re going to be fierce. This is real competition, this is life or death for us,” said South reserve Joe Devance.
“We understand and we know how Arwind (Santos) takes this seriously so we got to take them equally as serious if not more serious so this right here is my competition face, this is my Game 7 of the Finals face so this is how much it means to me and hopefully we can take the crown to the South,” said the Purefoods Hotshots forward while making a serious facial expression, pointing to his face.
Devance was referring to North All-Star’s Arwind Santos, who claims has never lost in a dance off. In last year’s All-Star at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Santos and the PBA All-Stars beat Gilas Pilipinas in the much-anticipated dance off.
Devance said he and Alaska Aces swingman Cyrus Baguio have been working on “some secrets” for Sunday’s performance before an expected soldout crowd at the Puerto Princesa City Coliseum.
“Me and Cyrus, we got some good stuff coming up hopefully it’s just really getting everybody on the same page,” Devance said.
Like the South, the North team is also cooking something up.
Purefoods big man Marc Pingris said they had intense practice Saturday night.
The real winner on Sunday will be the fans.
“Hindi para sa amin ‘to. Para sa mga fans ‘to na manonood. Talagang binabalik lang namin sa kanila yung kasiyahan at sa pag-vote sa amin so para sa kanila ito hindi para sa amin,” Pingris said.