MANILA, Philippines – The most popular PBA team, indeed.
Five Barangay Ginebra players are leading the partial voting for next year's All-Star festivities in Bacolod, the league announced.
Gin Kings Japeth Aguilar, Scottie Thompson, Christian Standhardinger, LA Tenorio and Jamie Malonzo are the five top players in the voting as of December 19, the PBA said.
The athletic Aguilar has a total of 24,372 votes so far, followed by former PBA Most Valuable Player Thompson with 17,398.
Standhardinger, the frontcourt tandem of Aguilar, has 15,400 votes, while Tenorio, who returned from his bout against cancer earlier this month, has 15,390 votes.
Malonzo has 15,014 votes.
Rounding up the top 10 are San Miguel Beermen's June Mar Fajardo, the reigning MVP, with 14,912 votes.
Ginebra's Mav Ahanmisi and Stanley Pringle have 13,654 and 13,216 votes, respectively, while San Miguel's CJ Perez has 11,432.
NorthPort Batang Pier's Arvin Tolentino has 11,092 votes.
Last year, Aguilar and Thompson were the Top 2 vote-getters for the All-Star game in Passi, Iloilo.
According to the PBA, a total of 24 players will be determined through fan selection, while the rest will be voted by members of the media.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone and Rain or Shine top mentor Yeng Guiao are leading the coaches with 28,110 and 11,494 votes, respectively.
Chito Victolero of Magnolia (7,180), TNT's Jojo Lastimosa (3,572) and San Miguel's Jorge Gallent (3,348) also got their own share of votes.
The tallied votes include in-venue and online polling.