For Gilas, who is the real lucky charm?

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WHAT do the members of the Gilas Pilipinas gold medal winning squad in the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games do for an encore?

Like brothers for life, they celebrated the golden triumph and bonded anew last Wednesday during the PBA media day at the One Esplanade in Pasay.

San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter and CJ Perez, Scottie Thompson, and Japeth Aguilar of reigning champion Ginebra, TNT’s Calvin Oftana, Meralco’s Chris Newsome, NLEX’s Kevin Alas and NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino showed up during the pro league event preceding the season-opening Commissioner’s Cup on Nov. 5.

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Only naturalized stars Justin Brownlee, who is still in the United States, and Ange Kouame, seeing action in Europe, were not around.

The Filipino cagers were also feted by President Marcos Jr. during the “Gabi ng Parangal at Pasasalamat Para sa Bayaning Atletang Pilipino” last Wednesday night at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Thompson, the reigning PBA MVP, said his stint in the Asiad–and the FIBA World Cup held at home soil one month before the China Games, would only make him better.

“Very big help. Personally, naka-gain ako ng lots of experience sa international game especially sa Asian Games,” Thompson said. “Hopefully, makatulong this coming PBA season.

Ross, the newly-appointed playing assistant coach of the Beermen, said his goal in the new season is just like in the Asian Games.

“We don’t need any external motivation. In our team, we tell ourselves: Let’s keep winning,” Ross said.

“So, it’s gonna be fun going out there to compete against these guys to see and show who really the lucky charm was (in the gold-winning Gilas crew),” Ross added.

“We’re all looking forward to competing against each other, being brothers after the bond that we did in those two months.”

Ross said he and his Gilas teammates are embracing healthy competition against each other when they suit up for their PBA teams.

 

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