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PBA: All-Star Game is for the fans, notes Ginebra's Cone

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Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone (C) will coach Team Japeth in the PBA All-Star Game. PBA Images." src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/tvpatrol/02/21/barangay-ginebra.jpg"/><figcaption>Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone (C) will coach Team Japeth in the PBA All-Star Game. <em>PBA Images.</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA, Philippines -- Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone understands why some fans and players are disappointed about the results of the PBA All-Star voting process, after a handful of cagers were left out of the pool.</p><p>The PBA unveiled the list of 24 players who topped the All-Star voting last week, with the Barangay Ginebra pair of Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson emerging as the top two vote-getters. They held the draft for their teams on Monday, with Thompson taking Ginebra teammate Christian Standhardinger with the first pick.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/02/20/23/cstan-goes-team-scottie-with-first-pick-of-all-star-draft">READ: Standhardinger goes to Team Scottie with first pick of All-Star Draft</a></li></ul><p>But even as the draft went on, there were still plenty of questions regarding the non-inclusion of certain players in the 24-man pool. Notably, players like Converge&#x27;s Maverick Ahanmisi, NLEX&#x27;s Don Trollano, and TerraFirma&#x27;s Juami Tiongson were left out despite having solid seasons for their teams.</p><p>Ahanmisi, in particular, is putting up 18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per game for a Converge team that has a 5-2 win-loss record in the Governors&#x27; Cup.</p><p>Speaking a day before the draft process was conducted, Cone said the disappointment was understandable but stressed that ultimately, the All-Star festivities are geared for the fans.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a fans&#x27; game. It&#x27;s for nobody else but the fans. The All-Star Game is for the fans, totally,&quot; said Cone, who will coach Aguilar&#x27;s team in the All-Star Game.</p><p>&quot;Yeah, you wanna reward those guys who are deserving, I think that&#x27;s important. But basically, it&#x27;s a fans&#x27; game, so I don&#x27;t have anything wrong with fans picking the team,&quot; he added. &quot;The fans are seeing the players that they wanna see.&quot;</p><p>He sympathized with the players who didn&#x27;t make the cut, and revealed that he actually voted for Trollano and Ahanmisi. NLEX&#x27;s Trollano is putting up 10 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game while helping the Road Warriors build a 5-2 win-loss record.</p><p>&quot;I thought Don Trollano deserved to be in. And, [Maverick] Ahanmisi had a really good, the way he&#x27;s been playing. I tend to reward guys who are playing good now, right now. &#x27;Cause they&#x27;re playing well now,&quot; said Cone.</p><p>However, their non-inclusion doesn&#x27;t mean that those who made it are not equally deserving, the Ginebra coach said. Moreover, Cone pointed out that this issue is not just a problem for the PBA -- even the results of the NBA All-Star voting is scrutinized by fans and analysts.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s always gonna be guys who are deserving who don&#x27;t make it. Happens in the NBA, all the time, and in all sports. Whether it be baseball, football, basketball, soccer, it doesn&#x27;t matter. All-Star teams always leave deserving players off,&quot; said Cone. </p><p>&quot;That&#x27;s just the nature of the All-Star. Not enough spots for everybody,&quot; he added.</p><p>Players who were &quot;snubbed&quot; from the All-Star Game have taken the results in stride.</p><p>Tiongson, who is averaging 23.3 points for TerraFirma, told reporters last week that he understood why he was not voted into the showcase by fans.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m not that popular. Guys like me don&#x27;t really win things like this. No hard feelings,&quot; said Tiongson, who added that he does not feel that he deserves an All-Star nod given his team&#x27;s record. The Dyip are 2-5 in the conference.</p><p>Ahanmisi, for his part, said he does not want to take part in the event. </p><p>&quot;No knock to the people that do want to be a part of it, but I’ve seen too many players deserving of it but they’re never in it, so I just don’t want to be a part of that,&quot; he said.</p><p>The PBA&#x27;s All-Star festivities will take place in Passi City, Iloilo on March 12.</p><div><strong>PBA Season 47 games can be streamed live and on-demand on iWantTFC with a Premium subscription, available worldwide except PH and US.</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2412208" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Tim Cone understands why some fans and players are disappointed about the results of the PBA All-Star voting process, after a handful of cagers were left out of the pool.

PBA: All-Star Game is for the fans, notes Ginebra's Cone

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PBA: All-Star Game is for the fans, notes Ginebra's Cone

Camille B. Naredo,

ABS-CBN News

Published February 21, 2023 12:46 PM PHT

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PBA

PBA All-Star Game

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