ONLY 10 players showed up last Monday night as the Gilas Pilipinas national team training pool resumed its preparations for the FIBA World Cup at the Meralco Gym in Pasig.
To add to national coach Chot Reyes’ early woes, young big man Carl Tamayo has begged off from the pool due to a knee injury.
Showing up were former six-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer and teammate CJ Perez, Ginebra’s Japeth Aguilar, Chris Newsome of Meralco, TNT’s JP Erram, naturalized big man Ange Kouame, and overseas-based standouts AJ Edu, Thirdy Ravena, Kiefer Ravena, and Rhenz Abando.
Naturalized players Jordan Clarkson of the Utah Jazz and Justin Brownlee have yet to join the pool in its build-up for the blue-ribbon world cage spectacle on August 25 to Sept. 10 that will be co-hosted by the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
Brownlee, 35, is set to return to the country this week after attending his son’s graduation in the United States.
Kai Sotto is also in the United States to try his luck in a camp with the Dallas Mavericks.
Gilas was drawn with Italy, Dominican Republic, and Angola in Group A of the World Cup.
The nationals will toughen up via European training camps in Estonia, Lithuania and possibly in Latvia.
The Filipino cagers need to finish at least in the top two at the end of the group stage to advance to the next round and hopefully boost their bid of becoming the best placed Asian squad to directly qualify to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
