PH will send basketball team to Asian Games; coaches, players named
THE Philippines will be sending a basketball team to the Asian Games, according to sports officials on Sunday.
“We would like to announce our participation in the Asian Games, and it’s final,” said Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Chairman Ricky Vargas in a hastily called press conference, which Al Panlilio, president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP); and PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial also attended.
Vargas, concurrently the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president, also said that the POC was expecting the team to “perform better than the last Asian Games.”
“In Korea, they placed seventh. If we performed better than that it would be excellent considering we lacked time,” said Vargas.
The change of heart came after Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher “Bong” Go met with the officials separately to convince them to reconsider their decision, which was reached after the “basketbrawl” between Gilas Pilipinas and the Australian team during the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asian Qualifiers last July 12. The incident resulted in the suspension of 10 Filipino and 3 Australian players and a fine for Gilas Coach Chot Reyes.
“Para sa bayan ito [This is for the country],” said Panlilio. “We will start preparing tomorrow [Monday] and our first game will be on the 16th. Hopefully, we have a strong and competitive team.”
The SBP also announced that Northern Luzon Expressway coach Yeng Guiao would still be head coach while Caloy Garcia, the Rain or Shine head coach, would be his assistant.
The players for the Philippine team are Christian Standhardinger, Paul Lee, Stanley Pringle, Don Trollano, JP Erram, Paul Asi Taulava; Gilas Cadets Kobe Paras and Ricci Rivero; Rain or Shine players Raymond Almazan, Beau Belga, Maverick Ahanmisi, Gabe Norwood, Chris Tiu and James Yap.
Vargas said the Philippines has sent a letter to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee about the Philippines’ reentry to the event from August 18 to September 2.
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