PBA Legends arrive today in Riyadh for exhibition tour

DAMMAM: For the second time in little over two years PBA basketball entertainment comes to Saudi Arabia during the PBA Legends exhibition tour which kicks off Thursday at the Green Hall Stadium Sports City on Rakkah Dammam-Khobar highway.
Coach and delegation head Derick Pumaren leads the 11-man PBA Legends team that arrives Wednesday from Manila on a Philippine Airlines flight PR 654 at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh at 5:15 p.m. From Riyadh, the team of PBA stars of the 80s and 90s transfer on a domestic flight to Dammam the same day and is expected to arrive at the King Fahad International Airport at 10:30 p.m.
Abdul Aziz “Jawo” Dizon, CEO of the organizing Coordinations Est. for Event Planning and Organization (CEEPO), was all agog Tuesday as he prepares to welcome the PBA Legends on the eve of their arrival.
“Thanks to Allah, we have been given this golden opportunity to once again present for the second time in two years the PBA Legends tour of Saudi Arabia. Our commitment is to serve and entertain people,” said Dizon who has been working very hard the past few months to ensure success of the event that will take the PBA Legends for a game each to the cities of Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah.
Dizon would also like to express his thanks and appreciation to the generous sponsors, coordinators and everyone involved in the project which he sees as the start of bigger events to come in future.
To take the first shot at the visiting Legends is the ARCC-EEI select team at 7 p.m. Thursday, with the gates to open as early as 1 p.m. at the Green Hall Stadium Sports City on Rakkah Dammam-Khobar highway.
Friday, the visiting team plays MEFBA Riyadh All Star at 6 p.m. at Prince Faisal Olympic Complex basketball hall in Nassiriyah. They then take a domestic flight to Jeddah at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for the game at 7 p.m. against the Saudi Legends at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium near the Industrial City.
Alvin “The Captain” Patrimonio had been ambivalent about joining the tour prior to the exit of his Purefoods team in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup but is now only too happy to make the trip.
“I am glad I was included on this star studded team. At long last it’s finally on,” Patrimonio was quoted as having said in Filipino.
Former Ginebra mainstays Vince Hizon, Noli “The Tank” Locsin and 7-foot-1 behemoth EJ Feihl along with Sta. Lucia’s ex-franchise player Marlou “Skyscraper” Aquino are all visiting the Kingdom for the second time having been part of the team that toured here in 2012.
The others on the 2015 Legends team to Saudi are Kenneth “Captain Marbel” Duremdes, Ren-Ren Ritualo, Cris Bolado, Dindo Pumaren and Nelson “The Bull” Asaytono.
Supporting the three-day exhibition games are diamond sponsors KIA Motors, Al Jabr Saudi Arabia, Philippine Airlines, Enjaz Banking Services, Metro Bank, China Bank, BDO Remit, DBP, AUB, BPI Remittance, My Remit ABS-CBN, Al Dawaa Pharmacy through OPPO products, PEAK Shoes of Sodas Sports, RED TAG, ARCC-EEI, OSN, Kapatid TV5, Aksyon TV Int’l WIN International Marketing and Kingdom 9 n 1 Coffee; silver sponsors, Al Gosaibi Food Company, Popeyes, Vanellis, Saudi Diesel Equipment Co. Ltd., Flash Cargo, Sky Freight Forwarders, Bangus Restaurant, Kabayan Restaurant, Giordano Fashion and Hotel Inter-Continental Riyadh.