Is Gilas a priority?

Gilas head coach Tim Cone has a big problem. He has limited time to get the national team ready for the coming FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying window late this month. Then, there’s another FIBA window scheduled in November. The challenge is for Gilas to pick up enough wins to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar next year since at the moment, the team is not in the magic circle of eight to advance. Another challenge is to defend the Asian Games championship in Aichi-Nagoya on Sept. 19-Oct. 4. Host Japan is mustering its forces to wrest the crown with NBA players Rui Hachimura, Yuki Kawamura and Yuta Watanabe leading the charge alongside naturalized player Josh Hawkinson and crack point guard Yuki Togashi. China is another threat as it was dethroned by Gilas in the previous Asian Games and is on a mission of redemption.

What’s bothering Cone even more than the opposition is finding out who’s available to play. Kai Sotto is clearly the best Filipino big man today but apparently, playing for Gilas isn’t a priority. He claims to be pursuing his NBA dream but didn’t play in the recent NBA Summer League. Sotto is mulling the possibility of joining a US NCAA D1 team under a rule that allows pros to play in college if within five years from high school graduation. He’s now 24 with experience in the Australian and Japanese pro leagues. How feasible is this route to the NBA for Sotto? There is talk that Sotto will agree to play for Gilas if the price is right, meaning he won’t settle for the usual allowance given to national players as his asking salary for a FIBA window is reportedly in six dollar figures. Let’s hope this talk isn’t true because if it is, Sotto will lose his image as a national treasure and go down in basketball history as an unpatriotic mercenary.

Quentin Millora-Brown got his Japanese B-League clearance after suiting up for Gilas. He’s recovering from surgery but it’s not certain that once he’s good to go, he’ll be back with Gilas. Mike Phillips did the same thing as Brown, securing his B-League clearance after playing for Gilas. But Phillips is declining the call for the coming FIBA window to attend his brother’s wedding in the US. As for the Asian Games, it’s not likely the B-League will allow Phillips to rejoin Gilas because of contractual commitments. The B-League and the Korean Basketball League will permit players to join their national teams only for FIBA-sanctioned competitions although there have been exceptions like Bobby Ray Parks for the SEA Games last year. If the B-League and KBL restrict players, Gilas won’t be able to count on Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu. Someone said Tamayo would’ve been allowed for the Asian Games by his KBL team but since Quiambao wasn’t, he’ll also be grounded. There’s a list of 30 players in the Asian Games pool with newcomers like Brandon Bates, Sedrick Barefield, Bennie Boatwright and Caelan Tiongson on the roster. But who’ll be available to play if they’re called up?