By REYNALD MAGALLON
Under microscope as it prepares for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Gilas Pilipinas entered its training camp at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna on Saturday, June 17 with Ginebra star Jamie Malonzo in attendance.
Also in the first batch was a pair of old reliable in June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar who could be playing their last for Gilas this year if selected.
Joining them were Scottie Thompson, CJ Perez, Chris Newsome and JP Erram.
Hampered by manpower woes at the onset of their formal training sessions, the Nationals are expected to reach close to full attendance in Calamba where the team will be spending the next four days before flying to Estonia on June 22 for a series of tuneup games against European teams.
Kiefer and Thirdy Ravena were also present along with Rhenz Abando, naturalized player Ange Kouame and young big man AJ Edu.
Dwight Ramos is also among the players expected to join the team over the weekend along with injured players Ray Parks Jr.,RR Pogoy and Calvin Oftana.
Justin Brownlee, on the other hand, is reportedly in the country already but
could join the team in the next few days while Jordan Heading is still in the US. Kai Sotto and Jordan Clarkson, as earlier reported, won’t be joining the camp as well as the European trip.
Gilas coach Chot Reyes had earlier laid out the plans for Gilas in the training camp and ahead of the European tune up games, noting that the team must get its players back into game shape first.
“People have to start getting into game shape because a lot of these guys are coming off a break, both PBA, Japan, Korea, they’re all coming from breaks so we’re starting some conditioning already,” said Reyes who also stressed the need to assimilate new guys in Edu and Abando to the scheme of things.
“We also want to assimilate both Renz and EJ into what we’re doing. The others already know, basically, the stuff that we’re doing and we wanted to fast track the assimilation of Rhenz and EJ,” he added.
