The list of players that the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has requested the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to be part of the national team pool was finally released yesterday.
And it included six Cebuanos.
Among the Cebuanos that the Gilas Pilipinas’ American head coach Tab Baldwin wants in the pool are former PBA MVP Kelly Williams whose mother is a Cebuana, Aldrech Ramos, Sonny Thoss, Dondon Hontiveros, two-time defending MVP June Mar Fajardo who is still recuperating from plantar fasciitis and scoring dynamo Terrence Romeo, whose father actually hails from Boljoon.
The rest of the list is comprised of “Asia’s best point guard” Jayson Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, the ageless Asi Taulava, Gary David, JC Intal, Gabe Norwood, Calvin Abueva, Marc Pingris and LA Tenorio.
The team will be backed by naturalized player Andray Blatche who arrived in the country on Sunday to join the Gilas in their preparations for the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship in China this September.
Only Castro, de Ocampo, Norwood, Pingris, Tenorio and Fajardo are the holdovers from the Gilas squad that took part in the 2014 Fiba Basketball World Cup in Spain.
However, Fajardo has expressed his uncertainty in joining the team because of his injured foot while Tenorio has explicitly said that he will be skipping national team duties this year, citing fatigue.
The winner of this year’s Fiba Asia tournament will qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil. The country was lucky enough to be bracketed in Group B, a group that has Palestine, Kuwait and a team from East Asia.
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