Reserves named to All Star team

Coaches have finished selecting reserves to the PBA All-Star game to be held in Bacolod City on April 24-27.

Here are the reserves:
North All-Stars - Ranidel de Ocampo and Arwind Santos of Air21, Nic Belasco of Coca-Cola, Mark Cardona of Talk ‘N Text, Willie Miller of Alaska, rookie Rya Reyes of Sta. Lucia and Purefoods’ Enrico Villanueva.

South All-Stars - Dondon Hontiveros of Magnolia, Reynel Hugnatan and Joachim Thoss of Alaska, Peter June Simon of Purefoods, Cyrus Baguio of Red Bull and new Brgy. Ginebra Gin King Junthy Valenzuela

Selected by the fans to start are:
North All-Stars - Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand of Brgy. Ginebra, Kerby Raymundo of Purefoods and Lordy Tugade and Marc Pingris of Magnolia.

South All-Stars - leading all-star vote-getter James Yap of Purefoods, Kelly Williams of Sta. Lucia, Danny Seigle of Magnolia, Asi Taulava of Coca-Cola and Jimmy Alapag of Talk ‘N Text.

The Welcoat Dragons is the only team not represented in the 2008 All-Star game.

Wade to play in Beijing

Wade has expressed his willingness to participate in this year’s Olympics.

That’s trouble for US opponents, good news for Team USA.

“I really want to stress to them that I really want to be a part of this team, badly,” Wade said. “I’ve been waiting four years for this opportunity. So I’ll do everything I can to make sure that I’m hopefully ready enough to go out there and play. And if I’m not, they should move on and get somebody else. But I’m not looking at that as being the case.”

The 2006 NBA Finals MVP who carried the Miami Heat to their first NBA title expressed optimism in playing saying that the process of examining him can start right away if Team USA officials would like to.

He is scheduled to have a meeting with Jerry Colangelo this summer over at Chicago to discuss things with Wade. Jerry Colangelo expects to have Team USA’s roster to be healthy come training camp.

“We need to get a good idea where our players are, so it might not be until then that we really, truly know,” Colangelo said. “We plan to visit with him and get as much info as we can.”

Though playing sparingly due to recurring injuries, Wade played superb averaging 24.6 points, which would have been sixth-best in the NBA if he played in enough games to qualify for the rankings.