Bennie Boatwright and Favour Ohno remained in the priority list of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas as candidates for naturalization, but the country’s cage governing body wants to make sure that these players will be in tip-top condition before resuming their naturalization process.
SBP executive director Erika Dy told Pinoystep.com that the group’s main objective now is the full recovery of these players coming from separate injuries.
Boatwright, who led San Miguel Beer to a championship in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup two years ago, was supposed to return to the Beermen this season, but was sidelined by an Achilles injury that required surgery.
The 6-foot-10 shooting big man is being considered to join the roster of naturalized players of the Gilas Pilipinas men’s basketball team that includes Barangay Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee, NBA star Jordan Clarkson and Ange Kouame.
Brownlee and Kouame teamed up to reinforce Gilas in the Asian Games basketball tournament two years ago and helped the Philippine quintet in reclaiming cage supremacy in the region by ending a 61-year gold medal drought.
Clarkson, on the other hand, last suited up for Gilas in the country’s hosting of the FIBA World Cup. He first played for the Philippine squad during the 2018 Asian Games and has since became a part of the national team program.
While Brownlee remains to be the guy current Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone has been counting on, having back up plans give the national team program more flexibility.
According to Dy, they’ve already processed the papers of Boatwright as early as last year, but because of controversies which happened in the country, in particular the sensitive issue surrounding former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, and the upcoming elections set to happen on May 12, plans were stalled for the time being.
“Because of what happened to (former Mayor) Alice Guo, the issue on naturalization has become more sensitive,” added Dy. “But we’ve already initially processed Boatwright’s papers and we were told that we can resume it in June. “Of course, we also want to see first the conditions of Boatwright and Ohno. Ohno wasn’t able to play for UP last season because she got injured.”
A former Rookie of the Year awardee, Ohno, a Nigerian, was sidelined by injuries to both knees that forced him to miss Season 87 of the UAAP women’s basketball event.
Aside from Boatwright and Ohno, Dy added that even our women’s 3×3 team is also in a lookout for a possible naturalized player.
