By NIKOLE JAVIER
The search for the country’s best 3×3 players continues as the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) intends to go regional with a chance for them to represent the country in future in international tournaments.
This was learned from PBA 3×3 executive Richard Bachmann as the league is set to launch its coming conference on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Robinsons Malls.
“Our plan is to basically find players. PBA trying to find 3X3 players is totally different, it’s a totally different ball game than 5X5,” said said Bachmann who was delighted with the addition of J&T which is set to debut as one of the newest teams in PBA 3X3.
“So we are actually finding players to represent the country in the future. I say this because our plan for the next conference is to go regional and find those players. There is so much potential for this PBA 3X3. For us to grow, we will need the help of our guest teams,” added Bachmann.
The Gilas Pilipinas 3X3 had a successful campaign in the FIBA 3X3 Asia Cup in Singapore after completing an upset win against the top seeded Mongolian team in the quarterfinals before falling short to the Chinese.
“The Philippines’ FIBA ranking before we started was 48th. We were ranked 48th, after one year of running this PBA 3X3, we’re (up) to rank 19th. In the last FIBA Asia Cup, we formed the team made up of the selected players and coaches from the PBA 3X3. Out of 30 teams who played in the FIBA Asia Cup, we placed fourth,” added Bachmann.
The team recorded a total of four wins against three losses to conclude the tournament.
