GILAS Pilipinas’ faith remains unshaken.
Despite failing to advance to the second round of the 19th FIBA World Cup, naturalized star Jordan Clarkson is convinced they are far from done.
“We’re super motivated. From the beginning we’ve been motivated. The team is strong. We fight, we ain’t giving up throughout the whole game, basketball is a game of missed shots and up and downs. What happens is we know how to string together runs and we go out there competing and fight till the end of the horn,” Clarkson said.
“We haven’t really felt like we’ve been out in any games. We are fighting. We’re strong mentally and we’re gonna put it together and try to get these two. We know what it means for the country. We’re gonna leave it all on the floor,” he added.
The 6-foot-5 Clarkson of the Utah Jazz spoke after the nationals dropped a heartrending 83-90 loss to world No. 10 Italy in Group A play last Tuesday night.
Clarkson, who showed the way for the Filipino dribblers with a game-high 23 points laced with seven rebounds and six assists, said the team is working hard for that elusive win in the world cage spectacle.
“(It was a) tough game but I think we competed in all three games. We came out here and gave our best efforts trying to figure out these games and get wins,” Clarkson said. “We just gotta make adjustments. For the last three games, the team has been playing the same way. We’re coming out here competing and trying to figure it out.
“We got to get a win and we came out winless in the group play. It didn’t turn out as we expected it to be. We gotta come back to the drawing board and figure it out.”
The Philippine five is now bidding to become the best Asian team and gain a slot to the Paris Olympics next year.
Gilas was relegated to a new-form Group M where it will tangle with two squads that will be eliminated from Group B.
Clarkson said Gilas will have its hands full against whatever team it faces in the classification phase.
“South Sudan is a physical and athletic team. I watched them play a few games. Their coaches are good as well. I know Luol Deng and how he put that program together over there. They have a young player, Wenyen Gabriel over there as well. He’s athletic and runs the floor well,” he said.
“China as well is very familiar to me. Kyle Anderson joined them as well and is their big guy. Two really good teams. We gotta come out here and put it together and win. That’s what we wanna do. We’re not coming out here to lose but we know these two teams are good. They’ve been put together well with size and everything. We’re ready to compete and fight.”
