CJ Perez returns to Gilas Pilipinas duty along with four other replacement players tapped to be part of the Philippine men's basketball team to the 19th Asian Games.
Perez is joined by fellow San Miguel teammates Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross, along with Arvin Tolentino of Northport and Kevin Alas of NLEX.
See Roger Pogoy ruled out of Gilas Pilipinas squad to Asian Games
The five were named Tuesday by the PBA Board and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) in a hastily-called presser at the PBA office in Libis.
Team manager Alfrancis Chua had to make an emergency call on the additional players late Monday night and asked them if they are available to attend the Gilas training camp at Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna early Tuesday morning.
The new players are on a standby in case Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Mo Tautuaa, and Jason Perkins are not given clearance by the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Commitee (HAGOC) to play in the quadrennial meet.
"So those are the four replacements we have for Calvin, Terrence, Mo, and Jason," said Cone, "So obviously, we've gone a lot smaller. Those are the four guys that came up in practice this morning. So we're now practicing at Inspire with 16 players as we go."
Incidentally, Lassiter, who was part of the Gilas team that regained the basketball gold in the last Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, was tapped to replace Roger Pogoy, who backed out due to health reason.
Apparently, the country submitted two different lists of players to HAGOC.
The first contained a total of 60 players including Romeo and Tautuaa and given as early as May.
A second list, which Cone admitted just having learned about it five days ago, no longer have the names of both Tautuaa and Romeo.
The names of Perkins and Abueva were not part of both list.
Cone said the team is still hoping at least two out of the four players would still be able to play, although he also admitted things looked bleak.
"It doesn't look good, honestly," added the Gilas coach. "So we'll probably go with the four that we have."
The Philippines, according to Cone, expects a decision from HAGOC within the next 24 to 48 hours.
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