No go for Dubai PBA All-Star week

THE PBA’S plan to stage its All-Star festivities in Dubai this year has been shelved for next season, with the annual spectacle now slated at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

It will be the first time in four years that the classic North vs South matchup will be held in Metro Manila since 2012, when Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay hosted it. The event has had stops in Boracay, Palawan, Davao and Laoag.

The organizers had faced the difficult task of bringing in a delegation of close to 150 people to Dubai, but they assured the PBA that the All-Star Week will be held there next year.

This season’s festivities—including the Slam Dunk, Three-Point and Obstacle Challenge contests and the All-Star game—will be held from Aug. 5 to 7.

Meanwhile, the league is still finalizing the schedule of the coming Governors’ Cup, the import-spiced season-ending tournament.

Defending champion San Miguel Beer is bringing back former Best Import Arizona Reid.

Rain or Shine, which won the Commissioner’s Cup last month, will be shooting to win a second straight championship for the first time with the help of Dior Lowhorn, a fierce inside operator, one the Elasto Painters badly need.

Barangay Ginebra has enlisted former Tropang TNT import Paul Harris in lieu of Othyus Jeffers, who failed to take the Gin Kings deep in the Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.

The conference is slated to open on July 15 should Gilas Pilipinas—and its PBA standouts—fail to book a berth in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Should Gilas succeed, though, the PBA may move the opening of the final conference as late as the first week of October.