IN five days' time, or on August 23, the Gilas Pilipinas team that will fly the flag in the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup will be announced.
Of interest to the fans are the 12 players that will be called up for the World Cup team. But greater interest is on who the final four cuts will be.
Will it be Calvin Oftana next? Rhenz Abando perhaps? Kiefer Ravena? Thirdy? Or both?
Fans can't wait to know.
Whoever they'll be, these unlucky four will not be the first to suffer the cruel fate of being left out ahead of a major international basketball tournament.
Here are more?

JEFF CARIASO AND BONG HAWKINS (1998 Centennial Team)
We all know the story of Jeff Cariaso being the last cut in that team of PBA superstars assembled by coach Tim Cone, but few remember the damned fate suffered by Cariaso's teammate at Alaska, Bong Hawkins.
Hawkins, one-third of the Alaska triumvirate that brought the Uytengsu franchise on the brink of a second PBA grand slam that year, was a shoo-in in that Centennial Team. Cone had in fact envisioned him to be one of its leaders.
However, the brainy banger out of Perpetual tore an ACL in the buildup for the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, where the Centennial Team eventually ended up with the bronze medal.
READ: Cariaso recalls how pain of Centennial Team cut inspired him to be better
JERRY CODINERA AND BONG ALVAREZ (1990 Asian Games)
Jerry Codinera, one-half of Purefoods' preeminent frontline tandem, was a cinch for a spot in Sonny Jaworski's national team to the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing - the first all-pro squad to represent the Philippines internationally.
However, the PBA star out of University of the East fell ill with hepatitis just days before he was to leave with the team for the Chinese capital, opening the door for Zaldy Realubit to make Jaworski's trail-blazing team.
Codinera wasn't the only unlucky cut in that team, though. High-flyer Bong Alvarez, then one of the most athletically gifted players in the PBA, also made the final stages of the buildup, only to miss out on a spot in the Final 12.

DANNY SEIGLE AND RON JACOBS (2002 Busan Asian Games)
In what went down as one of the biggest 'what ifs' in Philippine basketball, Danny Seigle tore his Achilles two days before the national team leaves for the Asian Games in Korea after going for a shotblock in 78-61 win over Qatar in a tuneup game.
Seigle was an unstoppable offensive force for San Miguel in the PBA and was envisioned to be the No. 1 weapon of the team by Jong Uichico, who inherited the team after his mentor, Ron Jacobs, suffered a stroke on Christmas Eve of 2001.
READ: Remember this unfortunate Danny Seigle injury?
"It was devastating," Seigle said years later, "it was the toughest thing I had to go through, but more, mentally.”
That team finished out of the podium in the Busan Asiad after that heartbreaking loss to nemesis Korea in the semifinal stage.
CALVIN ABUEVA AND LA TENORIO (2016 Olympic Qualifiers)
Tab Baldwin's decision to leave out both Calvin Abueva and LA Tenorio from the Gilas team to the 2016 Olympic qualifiers came as a surprise, and it was a choice that the national coach agonized with.
Abueva, at that time, was coming off an impressive stint in the Gilas team's runner-up finish in the 2015 Fiba Asia Championship in Changsha, China while Tenorio was the Gilas playmaker in the 2013 Fiba Asia and 2014 World Cup in Spain.
READ: Abueva, Tenorio the surprise final cuts in OQT
Baldwin instead put in Troy Rosario and Ryan Reyes in crucial decisions that he said caused him a lot of sleepless nights.

JAMES YAP AND RANIDEL DE OCAMPO (2007 Fiba Asia Championship)
It's not everyday that a national team concern affects a former President and the country's most celebrated showbiz personality.
But that's exactly what happened after PBA superstar James Yap failed to make the Philippine team to the 2007 Fiba Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan, his (estranged) wife Kris Aquino expressing how she and her mom, former President Cory Aquino, were saddened by the development.
READ: Kris Aquino saddened by James Yap cut
That decision was made by national coach Chot Reyes, who found no room for the PBA MVP in a crowded two-guard rotation led by Mark Caguioa, Dondon Hontiveros, and Renren Ritualo, who got the final nod over Yap.
Yap, Ranidel De Ocampo, and Tony Dela Cruz eventually became reserves in that team that finished ninth in the Fiba Asia Cup. Both Yap and De Ocampo will make the national team years later.

RANIDEL DE OCAMPO (2007 and 2009 Fiba Asia Championship)
RDO will forever stand in history as one of the biggest heroes of Gilas Pilipinas, but it wasn't always like that. In fact, the acknowledged leader of the Gilas team that finished runner-up to Iran in the memorable 2013 Fiba Asia Championship in Manila wasn't even deemed good enough to make the team not once but twice.
The do-it-all forward out of St. Francis of Assissi not only missed out on a spot in Reyes' 2007 team to the Fiba Asia Cup in Tokushima, but he also ended up as a reserve in Yeng Guiao's team to the same tournament two years later in Tianjin, China.
However, RDO simply cannot be denied. By 2013, he was reunited with Reyes as one of the anchors of that Gilas team that clinched a historic return to the World Cup in 2014 in Seville, Spain, where it beat Senegal in its last group-stage game.

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