It was as if the PBA office were bingeing on the first three Star Wars movies.
Oh, add Spaceballs as well.
This is probably around April or May as they were preparing for the 1991 PBA All-Star event. The league had already contacted a bunch of retired stars led by Atoy Co, Yoyong Martirez, Freddie Webb, Larry Mumar, Manny Paner, Jimmy Mariano, and Jimmy Santos. Maybe while watching Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fight, they realized that the RSJ team isn't as solid as they once were.
The likes of Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera, Ronnie Magsanoc, and Jojo Lastimosa have gone to the Veterans' side and even if the 1991 draft class had Bong Hawkins and eventual Rookie of the Year Eugene Quilban, it's not as imposing as the previous versions.
So after two seasons, the PBA is ditching the Veterans versus RSJ format to pit the best players in a Light versus Dark format. The Light All-Stars will have players from Purefoods, Shell, Sarsi, and Alaska while the Dark All-Stars will have players from Ginebra, San Miguel, Pepsi, and Presto. Ginebra led the participation with five players with Purefoods and Sarsi coming away with four all-stars. Pepsi and Alaska ended up having just Manny Victorino and Lastimosa as their contribution.
Coincidentally, this is also the first time that imports were part of the festivities. Bobby Parks is still at the peak of his awesomeness but Norman Black at this point has transitioned to coaching chores. Still, Black is one of the legendary figures in league history and he deserves to be part of at least one "best of the best" scrimmage.
The Light All-Stars prevailed over the Dark All-Stars, 127 to 120, with Patrimonio winning the All-Star MVP award. The Captain became the first player to officially with the All-Star MVP award while also winning the Season MVP and a championship in the same season.
As for snubs, it's still the same old shit when it came to Abet Guidaben's all-star bid. The Pride of Camiguin got snubbed despite averaging 16.8ppg, 8.0rpg, 2.4apg, and 1.2bpg in 43 games for Pepsi. I know these numbers are from January to December so I guess Guidaben rarely scored up to four points per game in probably the first 20 games of the season. Samboy Lim missed the entire 1991 season due to injuries. This is also the final season of then-PBA commissioner Rudy Salud.
