Although he’s keen on tapping the services of the best players from the Philippine Basketball Association, returning Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone wants to get all the stakeholders of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas in forming up a team that will be ready to represent the national squad anytime in all major international events.
“The stakeholders were really pleased at the way we wanted to present it,” said Cone, who just last year led the Philippine men’s basketball squad to a gold medal finish in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China and ended the country’s 61-year drought.
“My stakeholders are the PBA, the UAAP, the NCAA. We were trying to get players from these leagues. They’re on board. We’re trying to get a comprehensive program in which we can help everybody and not disrupt anybody.”
Cone, the winningest coach in PBA history with 25 championships and the only mentor to achieve two grand slam feats, believes it would be pretty challenging doing this because of the differences in calendars of all the leagues involved, but they’re trying to figure out a way to make the program workable.
Aside from these leagues, also included in the program are the Pinoy cagers paying overseas, among them include 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto and 6-foot-10 AJ Edu, and Dwight Ramos, all of them playing in the Japan B. League, and Carl Tamayo, who just got his release after helping the Ryukyu Golden Kings in winning a championship last year.
These players, however, are expected to be available for the window tournaments as the B. League normally gives way for the staging of the FIBA window events.
“It’s gonna be hard to put together at this point,” he added.
These players will join the other players who were named initially by Cone in the pool like Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Calvin Oftana, CJ Perez, Jamie Malonzo, and June Mar Fajardo and UAAP champion Kevin Quiambao.
The team still awaits the fate of Justin Brownlee, who expected to face sanctions from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) regarding his eligibility in the upcoming tournaments.
Brownlee was tested positive for taking banned substance during Gilas’ Asian Games campaign last year.
