MANILA — Everybody thinks the NBA show in town is all about dunks, highlights and photographs for posterity.
Don’t tell that to Kevin Durant and Chris Paul.
So serious were the future NBA Hall of Famers that they would have wanted to catch a glimpse of the PBA selection and the Smart Gilas national team on tape before facing them on the floor.
“I haven’t seen the clips. No scouting report of the opposite team,” said Durant, a two-time NBA scoring champion from the Oklahoma Thunder. “I’ll just let my basketball instincts take over.”
Durant and Paul are spearheading the nine-man stellar cast of NBA stars along with five-time champion Kobe Bryant of the LA Lakers and reigning MVP Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls.
“We want to please the fans but at the end of the day, we’re all competitors and we want to win,” said Paul, the league’s top playmaker from the New Orleans Hornets.
Joining them are Derek Fisher of the Lakers, Tyreke Evans of the Sacramento Kings, JaVale McGee of the Washington Wizards, James Harden of the Thunder and rookie Derrick Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“We enjoy this experience but we’re all competitors. We want to know the competition first before facing them,” said Fisher, president of the NBA players’ union.