GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said it will be difficult to put together the best possible team for the Asian Games unless there's a mechanism in place that would guarantee that overseas-based players are released by their mother ballclubs, just like for FIBA tournaments.
Cone made the remark during a Senate Committee on Sports hearing called by Sen. Bong Go on Thursday morning to assess Team Philippines’ performance in the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
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Cone agreed that there is a need to bring the best players for the Asian Games in order to compete against the likes of South Korea, who won the gold in men’s basketball by beating host Japan in the final in Aichi-Nagoya.
But for that to happen, the mother ballclubs of the likes of Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo, and Kevin Quiambao must allow them to play for Gilas at the Asiad.
“We have to develop some kind of mechanism to get those players released to come to these games, because we can’t bring a secondary team and expect to play and beat the best of Korea or the best of China or the best of Japan or Lebanon or any other team,” Cone said.
As the Asian Games is not being organized by FIBA, clubs in Japan and Korea are not obligated to release their Filipino imports to the Philippine team unlike in the Olympics, FIBA Basketball World Cup, and FIBA Asia Cup, among others.
The non-availability of overseas players prompted the Gilas coaching staff to form an all-PBA squad for the Asian Games as the league had a nearly two-month break to accommodate the quadrennial multisport competition.
Cone said the SBP reached out to the clubs and initially got the nod for Tamayo and Quiambao from their mother teams in the Korea league to play in the Asiad, but there was a change of heart just two weeks before the competition.
“Actually, we wanted to bring the same core but what’s interesting is that Japan allowed their players to play in the Asian Games and Korea allowed their Korean players to represent their country and play in the Asian Games but they would not allow our Filipino players playing abroad to represent the country in the Asian Games," Cone said.
Cone said the situation in men’s basketball is different from the other sports where they have the ability to send their very best.
“We have to bring our best to be able to compete with them just like these athletes here. These athletes are the best that we have that are competing. We’re not bringing others from other lower schools or lower programs. We’re bringing the very, very best. And if we are going to compete at this level in the Asian Games especially, we need to bring our very, very best," he said.
Cone said the cycle will only continue for the next Asian Games unless there is a mechanism established in order for the overseas-based players to become available.
“And until we can find a mechanism that allows that, forces those teams to allow us to grab our players, we’re going to be in the same situation four years from now,” Cone warned.
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