Clarkson due here tonight

MANILA, Philippines - Fil-Am NBA guard Jordan Clarkson is arriving in Manila from Los Angeles at 8 tonight with his brother Julian and former University of Oregon guard Adrian Stelly of Nike Global Sports Marketing but details of the weekend trip are sketchy except that there are major basketball events they may attend tomorrow and Sunday.

Clarkson, who turns 24 on June 7, visited Manila twice last year. The first was in May to conduct an NBA Cares clinic for underprivileged kids in Tondo and make personal appearances at the NBA Café and NBA Store. The second was in August to meet his mother Annette’s Filipino relatives in Angeles City, Pampanga.

His arrival tonight is covered in secrecy. A reliable source confirmed yesterday that Nike is involved in bringing Clarkson over but wouldn’t disclose why he’s coming. Clarkson and his two companions will stay in town only up to Monday morning. Since the trip is Nike-related, Clarkson will likely participate in some kind of consumer engagement.

Several basketball events are scheduled this weekend and the speculation is Clarkson will show up as a guest. One is the Nike unveiling of the new Gilas uniforms to be used during the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the MOA Arena on July 5-10. The unveiling is set at 1 p.m. tomorrow with coach Tab Baldwin and the Gilas pool gracing the media event at the Kerry Sports Gym in the Shangri-La Hotel, Global City. Another is the Ateneo-La Salle senior men’s basketball game in the Filoil Flying V league at 4 p.m. Sunday, in the San Juan Arena.

The La Salle-Ateneo game was originally scheduled on June 5 but it was reset after the Blue Eagles requested an advance because of a conflict with a school activity. It’s not certain if the rescheduling was done to fit into Clarkson’s itinerary. Both the Ateneo and La Salle varsity teams are Nike-sponsored, making an appearance at the game for Clarkson logical.

The Gilas team will practice at the Kerry Sports Gym right after the unveiling tomorrow afternoon so if Clarkson attends the media event, he could stay for the workout and may even join the drills. Clarkson, however, will not be able to play for Gilas at the FIBA qualifier. His name was excluded from the pool of 24 submitted by the SBP to FIBA for the qualifier. Under FIBA rules, the final roster of 12 may come only from the pool of 24.

Clarkson is up for a contract renegotiation with the lapse of his Los Angeles Lakers two-year $1.35 deal. The Lakers could tender a qualifying offer to Clarkson next month but since free agents may be signed only after the NBA moratorium ends on July 12, he won’t be able to ink an offer sheet until then. The Lakers own the right to match any offer for Clarkson who could receive a tender of up to $57.8 Million for four years or an annual average of $14.5 Million. What Clarkson could earn in the next four years will be a huge upgrade from his $507,336 salary as a freshman in 2014-15 and $845,059 as a sophomore this past season.

Clarkson is clearly a star on the rise. He was drafted by Washington on the second round in 2014 then the Lakers paid $1.8 Million to the Wizards for his rights. Clarkson averaged 11.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 25 minutes in 59 games, including 38 starts, in his first year and made it to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. This past campaign, he averaged 15.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 32.3 minutes in 79 starts and finished as the Lakers second leading scorer behind Kobe Bryant with the team posting a 17-65 record, next to last in the league. Clarkson, Bryant and Roy Hibbert were the only Lakers to start in every game they played.

Next season, the Lakers intend to bounce back with new head coach Luke Walton and new lead assistant Brian Shaw. Bryant has retired so the Lakers will enjoy cap space to lure big-name stars to join. Rumored to be under the Lakers radar are DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George and Kevin Durant.

Clarkson, once called “Baby Westbrook” by former Lakers teammate Carlos Boozer in reference to the Oklahoma City Thunder guard, has been described as a highly motivated player by writer Adam Elliott Segal in the book “Basketball Now! The Stars and Stories of the NBA.” “Clarkson possesses a strong rim attack and his ball-handling skills – praised by everyone around him – are perfect for dishing on the slash or heading to the line for a few freebies,” said Segal. “Although he may not have been a high draft pick, Clarkson is proving his detractors wrong … his attitude and above all, his revelatory play have shown he may be a piece of the puzzle in Hollywood for a long, long time.”

It’s possible that this weekend, Clarkson will reconnect with his Filipino relatives, too. His mother relocated to Texas when she was five with her mother Marcelina Tullao from Angeles City. His father Mike met and married his mother when they were both in the US Air Force Reserve. His parents later divorced and his father remarried. Clarkson was born in Tampa, Florida and raised in San Antonio, Texas. In college, he played two years at Tulsa and one at Missouri before renouncing his last year of eligibility to turn pro.