JUNE Mar Fajardo reconsidered his decision to retire from international play and made himself available for the coming window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers upon the request of Tim Cone and Alfrancis Chua.
The nine-time PBA MVP already made up his mind to retire from Gilas Pilipinas at the end of the July window, where the 36-year-old even gave a speech before his teammates in the locker room after a 92-49 loss to Australia last July 6.
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But Cone admitted that he had to appeal to Fajardo, with the help of San Miguel Corp. sports director and Gilas Pilipinas team manager Alfrancis Chua, to come back while anticipating that Kai Sotto won’t be playing in the fourth window.
“After the Australia game, he gave a long speech in the locker room about how he was going to retire from Gilas, similar to what Japeth (Aguilar) did previously the year before," said the Gilas and Barangay Ginebra coach.
“I was happy to hear it. I was happy for him and he was, the players, slapping him on the shoulders, thanking him and everything. But I was thinking at the same time, 'He ain’t retiring. I’m not going to let him retire.'
“So when this happened, and especially before we knew Kai was coming in, we made a plea to June Mar that we still really need him,” Cone said.
Cone believes that Fajardo is better fit to play against Middle Eastern teams which is exactly what Gilas will be up against in the World Cup home qualifiers against Jordan on Friday and Iran on Sunday.
With a 2-4 win-loss record and the chance to get to the World Cup hanging in the balance, Cone felt that Fajardo is still needed at this point of the qualification stage where Gilas needs to at least win a game in this window.
“We felt that at this level, when we are playing, I would say, true Asian teams, these are Middle Eastern teams, we are not playing Oceania teams, we feel June Mar can make a bigger impact [against] teams like this,” Cone said.
“Actually, coach Alfrancis Chua was the one that went to him and asked him to rejoin the team. So we were really appreciative of him continuing to make that extra effort."
Cone understands why Fajardo, the only remnant from the Gilas team that had played in the last three World Cups, has already made up his mind to retire from international duty, which is why he is very thankful to the SMB big man that he decided to play in one more window.
“He’s been playing for a long time. He plays a lot of minutes at San Miguel. He’s beat up. But he is still coming in and joining us, and giving us his best. So no one appreciates June Mar more than me. I really love the guy and I love that he sacrifices to keep coming in here and playing,” Cone said.
And with Sotto now rejoining the team, Cone looks forward to having a formidable front court at his disposal, and that also includes AJ Edu.
"I tink it's fun, and then you add June Mar to the mix. We've got a good big man rotation," Cone said.
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