TO reschedule or to forfeit?
Those two options remain as the potential recourse for Fiba as it has yet to decide the fate of the nations who choose to beg off of the planned bubbles in the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers.
Reports from Korea continued to share the national federation's stance on skipping the November window of qualifiers in Manama, Bahrain, citing COVID-19 concerns in the Middle East.
Thailand, meanwhile, has yet to resume its trainings or even bare a pool as coach Chris Daleo remains in the United States.
The status of these two countries directly affect Gilas Pilipinas as they are the Philippines' scheduled opponents in the Group A tilt later this month.
Gilas is set to take on Thailand on November 26, Korea on November 28, and Thailand again on November 30.
The first Philippines-Thailand game was actually the rescheduled tiff back in February as Fiba cancelled games during the virus outbreak in the region.
Aside from its Gilas games, Thailand was also set to take on Indonesia on November 28.
Korea, on the other hand, was slated to take on Indonesia on November 30.
Decisions on these games is also likely to affect the next, with Fiba anticipating the third window of qualifiers in February 2021 to still be held inside mini-bubbles.
Verdicts on these matters, however, are only expected to be made if Korea and Thailand do indeed snub the said games.
Gilas begins its buildup for the said bubble on Friday after finally securing the green light from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for Emerging Infectious Diseases, holding its training camp at Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
Indonesia was the first to begin its practices, with coach Rajko Toroman working with the Garuda for the past three months in Bandung before recently returning to Jakarta.
Korea sits atop Group A of the qualifiers with a 2-0 win-loss slate, followed by the Philippines which sports a 1-0 card. Thailand (0-1) and Indonesia (0-2) have yet to win games in the bracket.
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