FLEXIBILITY in the various international tournaments is what the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) desires for its proposed naturalized players' pool.
But as much as the prospective candidates' on-court talent has been given a premium, program director Tab Baldwin implored that what should be given more weight is the players' attitude.
"I would strongly urge that we look at character first, that whoever we choose to become a Filipino is going to be a good ambassador for the country and is not just a good basketball player," the American-Kiwi mentor said.
Talks of granting citizenship to foreign talent has gained ground anew as Gilas Pilipinas embarks on a new beginning for the 2023 Fiba World Cup.
Naturalization papers for Ginebra resident import Justin Brownlee and Ivorian center Ange Kouame of Ateneo have already been passed in the Congress.
House Bill No. 8016, filed by principal authors Reps. Mikee Romero, Enrico Pineda, Eric Aristotle Aumentado, and Scott Davies Lanete, seeking to grant Filipino citizenship to Brownlee has been in the House as early as 2018.
Meanwhile, House Bill No. 5951, filed by SBP vice-chairman and Antipolo first district representative Robbie Puno for Kouame, was submitted last month.

SBP president Al S. Panlilio has also reached out to Chris McCullough with the San Miguel reinforcement repeatedly expressing his desire to represent the Philippines in international play.
Those three names have been floated so far for the said pool, although Baldwin isn't discounting the possibility of adding more.
"We're also interested in other candidates and looking for other names. We have some names already and we're still open to other names that that might pop up. Just the way the FIBA windows are now, a lot of guys just aren't available when the windows are on," he said.
"I think that there's nobody in the country that naturalization is a surprise to for basketball. We've had naturalized players and we've had them for many, many years. So it's just how many? And can we justify the cause for each player that we nominate?"
The Philippines has granted Filipino citizenships to Marcus Douthit in 2011 and then, Andray Blatche in 2014 as they suited up for Gilas Pilipinas.
Japan has benefitted from having a naturalized players' pool as seen in the past qualifiers when it swapped from Ira Brown to Nick Fazekas heading to the 2019 Fiba World Cup.
Although the entry of these talents will be a big factor for the Philippine national team's campaigns moving forward, Baldwin reiterated that the naturalization process also comes with its own set of responsibilities for those players themselves.
"This is something that I think, personally, is very important, and I would really like it if Filipinos saw it the same way," he said.
"I think that it's a tremendous honor to offer somebody's citizenship to your country and it should be treated as an honor. And I think anybody who receives that should understand that this is a great gift that a country offers, and they should treat it with the utmost respect, and they should always try to represent that country, not just as a basketball player, but as a person."

And as much as Gilas aspires to have a reinforcement with it for the next set of windows in the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers, Baldwin acknowledges that these processes are already beyond the SBP's control.
"I hope we have somebody naturalized by November," he said. "But again, I have no input into that process, only the candidates. And then, we just have to allow the political maneuverings to take place."
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