The selection process could prove to be extremely tough.
The Gilas Pilipinas Redeem Team looking to reclaim the gold medal in the upcoming Southeast Asian Games will be missing a handful of old reliables. And coach Chot Reyes is admittedly concerned with the sudden unavailability of players who will comprise the roster going to Cambodia.
Surprisingly, though, Reyes does not foresee the same problem creeping up once Gilas start forming the team for the FIBA World Cup in August. In fact, he seems quite confident that the stars will be available for the world’s biggest basketball conclave.
“There’s no problem for the World Cup. There’s a lot of players who are available because the tournaments all over the world are going to be put on hold,” Reyes told the media after the FIBA World Cup draw on Saturday night. “There’s not gonna be any conflict with any other tournaments or anything.”
But Reyes is not looking that far ahead—at least not yet.
“It’s really a matter now of sitting down with the coaching staff and putting the team together. But, for now, it’s the Southeast Asian Games first,” Reyes pointed out. “When that’s all over, we can think about this [FIBA World Cup]. But what’s in front of us right now is the Southeast Asian Games."
Reyes also shared that Gilas' FIBA World Cup lineup will be announced sometime in June, or about two months from the competition proper. When asked what type of team he's looking to build, Reyes hinted that the selection process won’t be looking solely at talent only.
“We’re not picking the best talent. We’re picking the best team,” Reyes emphasized. “We’re putting the best team together. We’re not picking a group of superstars. We want to pick the best team.”
Hopefully for the basketball-crazy Philippines, that best team would be good enough to win at least two games in Group A against Angola, Italy, and Dominican Republic.