PASIG City Mayor Vico Sotto approved on Friday the Philippine Basketball Association’s (PBA) request to hold its inaugural 3X3 tournament at the Ynares Sports Arena.
“The 3X3 will push through next Saturday [November 20] at the Ynares Sports Arena,” PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial told BusinessMirror on Friday.
Thirteen teams are entered in the tournament, according to Marcial. They are San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, TNT Tropang Giga, Northport, Meralco, Limitless Appmasters (Phoenix), CAVITEX Road Warriors (NLEX), Purefoods (Magnolia), Terrafirma and Sistah Super Sealers (Rain or Shine).
Only Alaska and Blackwater are not on the list but in their place are Pioneer Pro Tibay, Platinum Karaoke and Zamboanga Valientes of MLV Group. The draw is on Saturday.
The teams will compete in a six-leg, three-conference calendar with three grand finals. The leg winners will bag P100,000 and the grand finals champion will get P750,000.
Marcial also said that they are targeting a November 28 opening of the Governors’ Cup.
“The regular 5-on-5 will begin tentatively on November 28 also at Ynares in Pasig City, but it depends also on the arrival of all the imports,” Marcial said.
San Miguel Beer’s Brandon Brown, NorthPort’s Cameron Forte and Alaska’s Olu Ashaoulu are in town and undergoing a five-day quarantine.
Justin Brownlee of defending champion Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, according to Coach Tim Cone, will arrive on Wednesday.
Mike Harris of Magnolia, Paul Harris of Phoenix, Henry Walker of Rain or Shine, KJ McDaniels of NLEX, McKenzie Moore of TNT, Shabazz Muhammad of Meralco, Antonio Hester of Terrafirma and Jaylen Bond of Blackwater are expected next week. Josef Ramos