Parks joins Gilas cadets in training, but won’t play in Jones Cup

MANILA, Philippines – The training of the Gilas cadets has resumed Tuesday night with Bobby Ray Parks showing up and affirming his interest to join the pool as exclusively reported by The STAR earlier.

Also in attendance were Raymond Almazan, Von Pessumal, Kevin Alas, Raymar Jose, Carl Bryan Cruz, Mike Tolomia, Ed Daquiaog, Almond Vosotros, Alfonso Gotladera, Baser Amer and young 6-foot-9 Fil-Nigerian player AJ Edu.

San Miguel’s Arnold Van Opstal has been dropped from the pool as he’s not been showing up from the last stage of Gilas’ preparation for the SEABA Championship last month.

The Gilas cadets, now including Kiefer Ravena and Kobe Paras, are likely to be the ones being tapped for the Jones Cup in Taipei next month.

Parks has also been included in the pool but won't make the Jones Cup competition since SBP has already submitted a lineup for the Taipei invitationals.

“The SBP and the PBA are still talking about the participation of Gilas in the SEA Games and the FIBA Asia Cup. We’ve actually missed the first deadline for submission of lineup for the SEA Games,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes.

The FIBA Asia Cup and the SEA Games are both slated in August when the PBA Governors Cup is in progress.

“(The FIBA Asia Cup) is not a qualifying event for an important FIBA event so I was telling coach Chot ‘is it possible for us to field a mix of Gilas cadets and veterans,’” said PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa. “In fairness to coach Chot, he’s leaving it to the PBA to decide.”

Gilas Pilipinas was runner-up to Iran in the 2013 FIBA Asia Cup held in Manila and kept runners-up honors in 2015 in Changsha behind the host team.

The FIBA Asia Cup is now a stand-alone championship with the international cage body having set a new qualifying event for the World Cup. The initial rounds of the Asian WC qualifiers are set in November, February and June.

“It’s hard to deal with the February and June windows because the PBA is in its critical part of its calendar then. That’s why we’re studying this carefully,” said Narvasa.