The Cebu leg of the two-game affair will be held April 27, or four days before the Manila stop on May 1 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, according to Mario Whitmire of USA Basketball Tours, the chief organizer of the series, during last Friday’s Scoop weekly sports session at the Kamayan Restaurant on Padre Faura Street in Manila.

“We had just finalized negotiations on the Visayas stop of the series and, with Mandaue City finally agreeing, everything is in readiness as far as the series is concerned,” Whitmire said during the session sponsored by Accel.

Seven former NBA stars, led by the popular Dennis Rodman, will see action in the series against the members of the national training pool, composed mostly of PBA players like Busan Asian Games veterans Asi Taulava and Danny Seigle, and coached by Chot Reyes.

Other members of the NBA Legends squad are Alex English, Kevin Willis, Darryl Dawkins, Calvin Murphy, Sydney Moncrief and Otis Birdsong. Moncrief will be the playing coach.

Rodman, now 44, was known as the NBA’s “Bad Boy” because of the rugged play that earned him five championships with Detroit and Chicago.

Asked about the possibility of Rodman meeting his father Philander — a longtime resident of Angeles City in Pampanga who had left his wife Shirley and their three children while Dennis only 3 years old — Whitmire said only the player himself can answer the question.

The elder Rodman used to work at the U.S.-run Clark Air Base in Angeles — where he married his second wife, whom he also divorced later on.

Whitmire, who got the idea of bringing the NBA Legends here after being inspired by the Filipinos’ passion for basketball, said Rodman and company will be arriving April 23.

English and Murphy, who first came and played here in the mid-70s, are both basketball Hall of Famers.

Dawkins made his mark in the NBA as a backboard-breaking dunker, while Willis, Moncrief and Birdstrong are many-time NBA All-Stars.

Michael Halbrooks, who accompanied Whitmire in the session along with the latter’s son Eric Whitmire and PBA marketing director Jack Ruby, said the seven-man selection will be reinforced by four to six Filipino collegiate players.

The elder Whitmire — married to a Filipina, Terry Magistrado, a former nurse from Iriga City with whom he has two other children — will left for the U.S. earlier this week to finalize negotiations with four other former NBA players that will reinforce the Legends.