By: REYNALD MAGALLON
The resumption of Gilas Pilipinas training was met with the same old problem that saddled its previous versions.
The national team continued to face manpower issues in the early stages of its preparations for the 2023 FIBA World Cup as only 10 players were available on the scheduled training on Monday, June 12, at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City.
B.League players Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena, and KBL import Rhenz Abando were in attendance along with PBA players CJ Perez and June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel, Chris Newsome of Meralco, Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra and Poy Erram of TNT.
Naturalized player Ange Kouame and 6-foot-11 young big man AJ Edu were also present in the second official Gilas practice since the team first convened last Wednesday.
Just like in the first meeting, however, Gilas couldn’t really go into full practice and was reduced to doing some shooting drills as Edu and Erram were still nursing injuries that Reyes didn’t want to aggravate.
“AJ Edu and Poy Eram couldn’t go full time. They shot a little bit and then basically sat mostly so we basically had eight players today,” said Reyes.
Scottie Thompson, who was present in Gilas’ first practice, was down with a fever and opted to rest.
Reyes shared that Justin Brownlee, Jamie Malonzo, Jordan Heading and Dwight Ramos were originally scheduled to attend the practice but all of them were still not yet in the country.
RR Pogoy, Ray Parks and Calvin Oftana are still sidelined by respective injuries while Carl Tamayo has already begged off from the pool.
“That’s the reality, injuries are part if it and the other guys are I guess have extended stays when they went back to the US so you know, we, as usual, we just have to make do with the cards dealt with us,” rued Reyes.
Gilas is scheduled to train at the Meralco Gym on Tuesday before moving to the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna where they will spend a full week of closed-door sessions before flying for Lithuania on June 22.
