By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas is finally getting its big gun ready for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
The national team’s most potent weapon in NBA star Jordan Clarkson is set to arrive Tuesday and reconnect with members of the Gilas training pool.
The Utah Jazz star initially committed to join the Gilas training camp six weeks prior to the start of the global showpiece but was pushed back due to some family matters along with his negotiations for a contract extension with his NBA team.
Still, a legitimate NBA talent, Clarkson is expected to easily get accustomed to the system of Gilas head coach Chot Reyes and form chemistry with the rest of his teammates in the remaining three weeks of preparation before the Nationals play their first game against a Karl-Athony Towns-led Dominican Republic on Aug. 25.
Clarkson will be formally joining Gilas’ practice on Wednesday, Aug. 9 when the rest of the team also arrives from China where it participated in a pocket tournament in Guangdong.
The 31-year-old former NBA Sixth Man of the Year was initially set to join Gilas in its last couple of days in China but the plan was also scrapped due to visa constraints.
Despite of the delays, Reyes had earlier expressed his confidence that the NBA guard is coming in great shape and there will be little adjustments needed to get Clarkson into the groove of things with Gilas.
“He has assured me that he’s in pretty good shape. He’s been working out, he’s working on his skills so I think the number one thing that I can expect is that he’s in (basketball) shape,” said Reyes in an interview with Power & Play with Kom Noli Eala on Saturday, Aug. 5.
“We’ve been talking and we’re in constant communication. We’re talking about our offense, our concepts, our plans, and what his role is going to be,” he added.
Clarkson, who was chosen from Gilas’ naturalized players pool that also included Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame, is no stranger to Reyes and most members of the Gilas pool.
For one, he played for Gilas during the fourth window of the Asian qualifiers last year.
There, the eight-year NBA guard averaged 25 points, 6.5 assists and 5.5 rebounds against Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
With Clarkson’s return, all of the remaining 16 members of the pool are finally accounted for with only Scottie Thompson and Kai Sotto on the sidelines due to injuries.
Thompson is still recovering from a fracture on his shooting hand which he sustained during Gilas’ European training camp.
Sotto, on the hand, has been in the country following the end of his NBA Summer League stint but has yet to formally join practice due to a nagging back injury.
