A GILAS Pilipinas team with three naturalized players led by Justin Brownlee was supposed to fly the flag at the 20th Asian Games.
Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone bared the original lineup to Philippine Star columnist Quinito Henson, in which Brownlee, Bennie Boatwright, and Ange Kouame will join other national team mainstays in the Asiad title defense.
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Also in the lineup prepared by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), according to Cone, were June Mar Fajardo, Cjay Perez, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Juan Gomez de Liano, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Zavier Lucero, and Robert Bolick.
Adrian Nocum was also included in the pool as the 13th player, he added.
“We thought we were sitting pretty. No players from Japan [B.League] but still pretty strong,” Cone said.
A confluence of events, however, led to drastic changes in the initial plan, according to Cone. Brownlee was ruled out by injuries, Boatwright's naturalization wasn't made official in time, Tamayo and Quiambao failed to get KBL clearance, while Kouame signed with a team in France.
“But then, no Justin because of health, no Bennie with late papers, KQ and Carl were not allowed by their KBL teams last minute, no June Mar with fatigue and injury and chose to retire, and Kouame left for a contract in France.”
From that original list, only Lucero, Bolick, and Nocum remained to play in the Asiad.
They were joined by Jerrick Ahanmisi, Don Trollano, RJ Abarrientos, Calvin Oftana, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, Justine Baltazar, Justin Arana, Brandon Bates, and Sedrick Barefield in the Gilas squad that failed to reach the quarterfinals.
The ninth-place finish was the worst by a Philippine men's basketball team in the continental showpiece.
“With all the unavailability, it was decided to bring and train a different team while the window was ongoing," said Cone, who eventually handed over the coaching reins to his assistant coaches led by Richard Del Rosario.
"SBP wanted the FIBA window team to focus on the qualifiers since they were do-or-die, something I wholeheartedly agreed with,” Cone added.
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