Kobe Paras may be part of the Gilas team for the Southeast Asian Games and the Jones Cup.
inquirer
THE MULTIMILLIONAIRE superstars of the Philippine Basketball Association will be out of the Gilas Pilipinas rosters that will campaign in the Southeast Asian Games and the Jones Cup, but could be suiting up for the Asian Championship in Lebanon in August.
Playing for Gilas in the SEAG in Malaysia on August 19-31 and the Jones Cup will be the Cadets, a pool made up of pro league rookies who can easily win in Kuala Lumpur and can hold the fort fairly well in Taipei.
The PBA’s board of governors will meet again in the last week of the month to discuss what the composition of the team that will play in the Fiba Asia in Beirut, which is slated for August 8-20.
National coach Chot Reyes is expected to discuss, at length, his plans for the Fiba Asia, a tournament that doesn’t carry any weight in the qualification process of the Philippines for the World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo Olympics the following year.
The PBA board, according to sources, will be granting Reyes full support in player supply when the home-and-away series is played in November and February, where first round games of the Filipinos will be held in Japan, Chinese-Taipei and Australia.
Under a memorandum of agreement struck by the board with the governing Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the PBA will be lending its stars to the Gilas program in events included in the World Cup and Olympic qualifying process.
The MOA will allow Cadet members of the pool to be available two months before a tournament, while the PBA veterans can be plucked out of their mother PBA teams 15 days before the event.
Reyes, according to the source, will allow the Cadets to play for their respective mother teams even inside that two-month period.
In a related development, Gilas Pilipinas is reportedly eyeing Ricardo Ratliffe as a naturalized player that will take over Andray Blatche in the long run.
Ratliffe, who played two conferences for Star and has shown great all-around abilities aside from being an immovable force in the middle, is also reportedly being eyed by South Korea for naturalization.
Blatche has been a steady offensive weapon internationally after seeing action in the World Cup in Spain, the Fiba Asia championship in China and the WC Qualifying tournament in Manila.
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