Fil-Ams Stanley Pringle, Chris Banchero join Manny Pacquiao as PBA draft applicants

Filipino-American guards Stanley Pringle and Chris Banchero lead the lineup of foreign-born aspirants for this year's PBA draft.

 

The two men, who both began their Asian professional basketball careers in the ASEAN Basketball League, figure to be among the top picks in the annual event.

 

The 27-year-old Pringle was a star for two seasons for the Indonesia Warriors, which was coached by current San Miguel Beer team consultant Todd Purves. Pringle won finals Most Valuable Player honors in 2012 after leading the Warriors to an upset of the ABL edition of the Beermen featuring Banchero.

 

After two seasons with San Miguel in the ABL, Banchero spent this past season in the PBA D-League, where he was the first overall pick last year by the Boracay Rum Waves.

 

NCAA stars Kyle Pascual, Rome dela Rosa, and Jonathan Semira also signified their intentions to join the PBA draft.

 

Other foreign-born players throwing their hat into the pool are Andrew Avillanoza, Philip Morrison, Franklin Bonifacio Jr., Jeremy Bartolo, Giorgio Umali, Cody Tesoro, Richard Cole and Anthony Gavieres.

 

None of them, however, figure to have the star power of Filipino fight icon Manny Pacquiao, who earlier signified his intention to join the draft and fulfill his goal of being playing coach for expansion team Kia.

 

The PBA set an earlier deadline of filing for foreign-born applicants, who still need to have their papers secured before being eligible to be in the final list of the draft. Local-born applicants can still apply until August 13.

 

The draft will be held on August 24. GlobalPort will pick first overall while Rain or Shine has the No. 2 pick after an earlier trade with Meralco. — JST, GMA News