MEMO from Asi Taulava: Don't call this group Gilas Pilipinas.
The 45-year-old slotman issued the clarification on Thursday as he made the distinction between this Yeng Guiao-coached Philippine team to the previous iterations of the national team.
"First of all, I wanna correct that. This is coach Yeng's time. Under coach Yeng's time, we want to be known as Team Pilipinas," he said.
Taulava said that moving on from the "Gilas" brand is integral as Philippine basketball looks ahead to its future, starting in the second round of the 2019 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers this September.
"You know Gilas, that's in the past. It's time to change the image of Philippine basketball. We want to go away with those moniker names and things like that," he said.
For Taulava, Guiao was the biggest catalyst for the change in the national team, as evidenced by the constant perfect attendance drawn by all three of the practices this week for the second window of the Fiba World Cup qualifiers.
The cooperation between the PBA and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas? The players' willingness to play for flag and country? Yeng started it, Asi swore.
"Everybody that came into this group, it's because coach Yeng asked. Coach Yeng wants to do something special. We want to help him and do whatever we can do to qualify for the next round," he said.
"As far as everything else, we want to play for coach Yeng. As you can see, complete attendance again for the third straight day," the veteran center added.
To get a point of comparison, Taulava had to go back all the way to 2002 when a PBA selection coached by Jong Uichico finished fourth in the Asian Games.
That also happens to be Taulava's debut with the national team.
"Last time I saw something like this was back in 2002, when all the players that were asked for were there. It's been so long, but this is great for Philippine basketball. One man that can unite all the big bodies in the PBA - the board, the SBP, and that's coach Yeng."
So before you call this team anything else, Taulava only has one thing to say.
"Remember, we’re Team Pilipinas!"
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