Slaughter, Rosser out of Gilas pool

MANILA, Philippines – Gilas Pilipinas won’t be able to put together three behemoths in Andray Blatche, Junmar Fajardo and Greg Slaughter in its lineup for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament on July 5-10 at the MOA Arena.

 

Slaughter, the tallest aspirant in the Gilas pool at 7-foot-1, won’t make the tourney as the Barangay Ginebra lead front court player is set to undergo surgery to repair an injured ankle.

 

Tropang TNT guard/forward Matt Ganuelas-Rosser is also out, having undergone a knee operation of his own.

 

San Miguel Beer’s Marcio Lassiter has his own health problem, making him unavailable at the start of the Gilas training at the Meralco Gym in Pasig yesterday.

 

“Matt has had surgery for an ankle issue, an off-season injury, and he’s out of the pool. And Greg as well had a scan and he has some ligament issues in his ankle and he’s also no longer part of the pool. He’s part of Gilas because all these guys are, but he’s no longer an option for the OQT,” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin.

 

“Every player who is under my responsibility who has an injury is a concern. I’m concerned for them as people, for their careers, for their opportunities. I’m concerned that they can’t realize their ambitions to be a part of Gilas this year,” Baldwin also said.

 

Slaughter and Rosser are out but they can avail help from the Gilas staff should there’s a need for their strengthening and rehab procedures.

 

 “I’ve told them that if they want to be here and help out in training any way they can, if they want to do rehab with this, they have access to the staff. They’re our players,” said Baldwin.

 

The Gilas coach said the national training pool is ready to move forward in their OQT buildup with the exit of Slaughter and Rosser.

 

“The fact that they can’t walk on the court, that happens all the time in the sport of basketball. They move and I move on,” said Baldwin.

 

With the exit of the two, the Gilas training roster is down among Blatche, Fajardo, Lassiter, Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Jayson Castro, Jeff Chan, Ranidel de Ocampo, Paul Lee, Gabe Norwood, Marc Pingris, Ryan Reyes, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario and LA Tenorio.

 

Moala Tautuaa is helping out as back-up naturalized player while Mac Belo, Russell Escoto, Kevin Ferrer, Bobby Ray Parks, Roger Pogoy and Kiefer Ravena are Gilas cadets included in the 24-man lineup submitted to FIBA last May 4.

 

Baldwin has to name his Final 12 on or before June 27.