Baldwin admits losing sleep over tough Gilas ‘Final 12’ decision

MANILA, Philippines – Ryan Reyes, Bobby Ray Parks and Troy Rosario will be the newest players to don the Gilas Pilipinas jersey as they joined Andray Blatche and eight veterans named last night to the Gilas final lineup for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the MOA Arena on July 5-10.

Reyes, a combo guard with a good outside shooting, finally made the national team at 32 years old while Parks and Rosario graduated from the cadet ranks, being among the last players chosen by coach Tab Baldwin to carry the nation’s hopes in the final qualifying tourney for the Rio Games.

In a conference with the SBP leaders via Skype, Baldwin named Blatche, Jayson Castro, June Mar Fajardo and Gabe Norwood as his first four choices and Japeth Aguilar, Ranidel de Ocampo, Terrence Romeo and Marc Pingris as the next four.

 The last four were Jeff Chan, Parks, Reyes and Rosario, leaving Calvin Abueva and LA Tenorio out of the Final 12.

To many, the surprise was the exclusion of Abueva considering his performance in the 2015 Jones Cup in Taipei and in the succeeding FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha, China.

Somehow, Baldwin gave a hint of his decision in playing Abueva (4:04) and Tenorio (5:41) the least minutes in their 70-106 blowout by Italy at the start of a four-team pocket tournament in Bologna, Italy early Sunday morning.

Tenorio had served duty with Gilas for three years from the 2012 Jones Cup where he bagged the Most Valuable Player award. He begged off to join the team in last year’s Asian meet, citing fatigue as his reason.

In an interview by Sports5 correspondent Carlo Pamintuan, Baldwin said he lost sleep in making the tough decision.

“Everyone is deserving to make the team especially with the kind of effort they put in training. Unfortunately, we can’t squeeze all 14 players. In the end, we have to go through the process. We’ve done what we have to do for the best interest of the team,” said Baldwin.

The American-Kiwi coach, one-time semifinalist in the World Championship, expressed confidence on the team he’s formed. “If you have the best people in the process, you have the best chance of succeeding,” he said.

Parks and Reyes somehow enjoyed breaks on the ouster of Marcio Lassiter, Paul Lee and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser due to health problems. Reyes was a candidate for the Phl Team to the 2009 Tianjin Asian joust but was cut in the end due to an injury.

Rosario, meanwhile, made a good case for his inclusion on his dedication, effort and continued improvement, particularly on his outside shooting.

The former NU stalwart, then an incoming PBA rookie, was among the last cut in the Gilas team to the Changsha meet, then he anchored the Gilas cadet squad to a title run in the last SEABA Stankovic Cup in Bangkok, Thailand where he churned out double-double numbers.

Parks had had his stints with the Gilas cadet team in the SEA Games and in the SEABA Championship before moving over to the NBA D-League with hopes of breaking the NBA someday.

Former Gilas skipper Jimmy Alapag, who did the honors of announcing Baldwin’s choices in the proceedings covered live by TV5, described Gilas IV “as a versatile team with lots of size, speed and guys who can play multi-position.”

Blatche and his teammates will seek to end the country’s 44 years of absence in the Olympics Games.

The Philippines has been to six editions of the quadrennial games, the last in 1972 in Munich with a team led by Bogs Adornado, Jimmy Mariano and Manny Paner. Team Phl also played in the Berlin Games in 1936, in London in 1948, Melbourne in 1956, Rome in 1960 and Mexico in 1968.