THE Philippine men’s team tasked to defend the basketball gold medal in the 20th Asian Games convenes on Wednesday for the buildup to the Nagoya showpiece.
And look for the likes of Robert Bolick, Adrian Nocum, among others, to be on hand at the SMC Sports facility.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has sent out invitations to select PBA players who are going to make up the Gilas pool from where the final 12-man Asian Games roster will be assembled.
READ Brownlee yet to show up for Pilipinas practice
Among those invited aside from NLEX's Bolick and Nocum of Rain or Shine are SMB's Jerrick Ahanmisi, Caelan Tiongson of ROS, Justin Arana of Converge, Sedrick Barefield of Blackwater, Magnolia's Zavier Lucero, TNT's Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Brandon Bates of Meralco.
Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone said an all-PBA roster will try to replicate the memorable ‘Miracle in Hangzhou’ in 2022 when the country ended a 61-year gold medal drought in the quadrennial showcase by beating Jordan in the finals, 70-60.
A separate team made up of the core of Cone's regular pool, including those based overseas, will be tasked to play in the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers in Manila later this month.
Cone hinted that aside from naturalized Justin Brownlee, 'two or three' more players from the Gilas team in the FIBA qualifiers can be tapped to help in the Asiad title defense.
The plan means leaving out Kai Sotto from the Asiad team despite the 7-foot-3 center finally showing up on the first day of the national team’s practice for the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
“Kai is only for the [FIBA] window,” said Cone.
Brownlee, who cemented his legend by guiding Gilas to the gold three years ago highlighted by his fantastic scoring outburst in a 77-76 upset of host China in the semifinals, will try to reprise that role as the team’s naturalized player, along with Bennie Boatwright should his naturalization process be completed in time for the tournament.
“That’s pretty much the plan. So we just decided that we pretty much bring an all-PBA contingent for the Asian Games along with Justin,” said Cone.
As for the composition of the Asiad team, Cone stressed the core of the group is entirely different from the ‘window’ unit.
“Well, I guess some of them had played in the past with Gilas, but they haven’t been a part of these windows that we’ve been a part of,” he said. “We can still get one or two or three from the window team to join. But the bulk of the team will be new.”
Gilas deputies Jong Uichico, Richard Del Rosario, and Josh Reyes will initially handle the training of the Asiad team before Cone and the rest of the coaching staff composed of Sean Chambers, Patrick Partosa, and LA Tenorio come on board once the World Cup qualifier window is over by August 31st.
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