JAVEE Mocon was the lone PBA player who didn’t make the final 12 of Gilas Pilipinas in the first window of the Fiba Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers where the national team will face Indonesia on Sunday.
Mocon was relegated to a reserve role along with Jaydee Tungcab and Rey Suerte, leaving him as the only PBA player who didn’t make the final 12.
Gilas interim coach Mark Dickel admitted Mocon was one of the cuts that was difficult to make. Initially, Dickel was quoted as saying that all PBA players are shoo-ins for the match against Indonesia.
At the end of the day, though, the future of Gilas Pilipinas was also a factor in the non-inclusion of the Rain or Shine sophomore, who was included in the pool just recently.
“We had numerous combinations that could have gone with and a few positions, we felt like we’ve covered with some young players. They had an advantage thinking towards the future,” said Dickel.
“If you look at someone like Javee Mocon, that was a very difficult decision to make. We felt like we covered it both with Thirdy (Ravena) and Dwight (Ramos). They kinda play in the same position,” said Dickel.
“Javee ended up being the unlucky PBA player through no fault of his own. We just we just had covered it with Dwight and Thirdy in that position,” said Dickel.
Also not making it to the 15 players were special draftees Allyn Bulanadi and Mike Nieto.
“There’s a lot of tough decisions. Allyn Bulanadi, I thought he was so good in practice. That was a hard decision. But we felt we covered it with CJ and Roger in particular in that spot. Allyn’s time will come. Those were hard decisions,” said Dickel.
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