PBA Legends tour of Kingdom enters final leg

The PBA Legends tour moves to Riyadh tomorrow on the final leg of a three-city swing in the Kingdom following stops in Dammam and Jeddah.
After entertaining crowds of basketball-loving Filipinos at the Al-Nahda Stadium in Dammam and Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium in Jeddah the 11-member Legends team gets to show its wares during another three-day stint in Riyadh.
The visiting retired PBA players including the US-based Ponky Alolor wrapped up their three-day Jeddah joust last night with a game against the All-Star Filipino Selection. Sunday night the Legends team, which won the opening two games in Dammam, bounced back from a loss against Ittihad by beating Jeddah United 96-80 with Marlou Aquino delighting the crowd with a thunderous dunk to set the final score in the dying seconds.
After Sunday night’s game in Jeddah hordes of fans waited outside the venue for picture-taking and autographs with their basketball idols mirroring a tradition at PBA games back in the Philippines.
The group’s spokesman, Bong Hawkins, formerly of Alaska Aces, said they couldn’t have been happier with the warm reception accorded them by kabayans during their stay in the Kingdom.
“We appreciate the treatment and arrangements being done by our Saudi and Filipino hosts,” said Hawkins.
Noli Locsin and Vince Hizon, who both had stints with Barangay Ginebra shared Hawkins’ view and said they felt it’s just like the good old Ginebra days when they were mobbed by Filipinos during the group’s mall tours (Ramaniah in Dammam and Sarawat Jeddah Int’l Market).
Accompanied by PBA Legends USA Foundation Secretary-general Ruffy Ignacio, the team is expected to arrive at the King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh at 12:10 a.m. tomorrow. Their first day in Riyadh will be devoted to a meet-and-greet with the fans from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Lulu Hypermarket in Murabba District.
On Nov. 1, the first game at 6 p.m. will be between Riyadh All Stars of PABA Regional Director Nasser Ponpunan against FAEC-Dammam of coach Ariel Julio and team manager Edward Francis and the second game at 8 p.m. will pit the Legends against the combined Riyadh and Jeddah All-Stars of Lito Villanueva. Both games are at Green Olympic Stadium. The winners-losers format is again to be applied for the Nov. 2 games.
Nov. 3 is the departure date of the delegation.
The Cordinations Est. Co. for events planning and organization led by Fahad Ibrahim Al Sekaity and Abdul Aziz Virgilio “Jawo” Dizon organized the historic visit of the PBA Legends in Saudi Arabia.
The goodwill games coinciding with the Haj holidays are being held under the auspices of the General Presidency of Youth Welfare headed by president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal.
Supporting the event are diamond sponsors Mobily, Globe and National Pipe Co. (NPC), silver sponsors
Enjaz Banking Services, Flash Cargo, AND1, Hat Trick , My Remit, Asia United Bank, Bai Aluminum, Quantum Science, Giordano, Metro Bank, Western Union, Jahawer Shareq, KSA Channel 2, and QS Life.