THE Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 team intends to start training for the Fiba 3x3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Graz, Austria next week.
PBA vice chairman Bobby Rosales said the league has already been told by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas that they plan to begin the preparations next week at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
The SBP will be fielding Joshua Munzon, CJ Perez, Mo Tautuaa, and Alvin Pasaol, all of whom are already PBA players and have been given the green light to suit up for the OQT set from May 26 to 30.
“They are supposed to start the bubble training next week,” said Rosales on Tuesday. “They intend to leave one week before the start of the tournament.”
However, Rosales said it was also agreed that the four players will have to report to their mother teams once scrimmages will already be allowed by the government.
Rosales said the SBP assured there will have no such problem as to conflicts in schedule as the federation intends to move the training camp of the 3x3 squad to Manila once restrictions eased.
“As soon as the government allows the PBA to do scrimmages, the SBP should allow those players who are in the bubble in Calamba to join the scrimmages of the PBA teams. As far as the SBP is concerned, that should be no problem because if the IATF allows scrimmages also, they will transfer the venue of the training to the NCR. They will get out of Calamba. So in terms of schedule, there should be no problem,” said Rosales.
A total of 20 teams will compete in the OQT wherein they will be vying for three spots for the Tokyo Olympics.
Rosales also hopes that the players will have already been inoculated before flying to Austria.
“We are hoping that by that time that the vaccination program we are trying to work on with the government would have taken place already and if that happens, when they return, the quarantine might be shorter than the normal quarantine requirement by the IATF,” said Rosales.
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