By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas is likely to be without the very same personnel that played impressively in its 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup campaign in the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games in September.
Dwight Ramos already confirmed that he is not playing in the Asiad owing to the conflict of schedules with the B.League. That also makes a huge chunk of Gilas players in AJ Edu, Kai Sotto, Kiefer Ravena and even pool members Thirdy Ravena and Ray Parks Jr. all questionable for the continental meet.
“No, I’m not playing in the Asian Games,” said Ramos who plays for Levanga Hokkaido and was one of the key cogs not just in Gilas’ 96-75 win over China in the Nationals’ final game but also the team’s second leading scorer with 13.2 points behind Jordan Clarkson.
Edu, who will be playing his first season with Toyama Grouses, served as Gilas’ primary stoppers against the opposing team’s prime big men while Sotto, who will be returning to the Hiroshima Dragonflies, had also provided the inside presence and rim protection.
Clarkson, who only agreed to play for the World Cup, is expected to go back to the US to prepare for the Utah Jazz training camp as Justin Brownlee takes over the naturalized player role.
Even crowd darling Rhenz Abando, who plays in the Korean Basketball League, is still questionable revealing that he was supposed to join the Anyang KGC as early as July but opted out to be with Gilas in preparation for the World Cup.
“It depends po kung papayag po yung team ko kasi sobrang tagal ko na pong nakabakasyon. Dapat July 9, dapat nasa Korea na ako pero nag-extend pa ako dito so it depends po,” said Abando.
That leaves only June Mar Fajardo and RR Pogoy, two of the consistent performers in the World Cup, along with Japeth Aguilar, CJ Perez, Jamie Malonzo and reserve Chris Newsome to carry the cudgels in the Asian Games
Making matters worse for Gilas was the “resignation” of Chot Reyes after the World Cup leaving the program in hard reset with two weeks left in the Asian Games.
“I really don’t know. I don’t know if I’m still gonna be here for [the Asian Games]. I might have coached my last game already as the Gilas Pilipinas coach. So, I really don’t know,” said Reyes when asked about the plans for the Asian Games.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has yet to announce whether it is accepting Reyes’ resignation or a new coach will be handling the Nationals in the continental tiff.
