MANILA, Philippines - PBA president Chito Salud is batting for the national cage federation and the pro league to put up a working committee that will study the most viable long-term and sustainable national team program.
“I think the concern is for the SBP and the PBA to sit down, get heads together, take the bull by the horn and move forward,” said Salud with the question of Gilas Pilipinas’ participation in the Olympic world qualifier next year up in the air.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas said it would take the entire Philippine basketball community – its major stakeholders – to form a competitive team for that Olympic wildcard play.
SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan said they would vie if guaranteed of availability of all the players and the time needed to prepare for the tough competition.
The Philippines has only until Oct. 18 to decide on its participation in the meet featuring France, Serbia, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Angola, Tunisia, Senegal, Iran and Japan.
Salud is looking at a long-term plan that could allow Gilas Pilipinas to finally go all the way to the top following back-to-back second-place finishes in 2013 and 2015.
“We have clear choices before us. One, continue the pick-up system and be subject to the vagaries of either players or team owners’ decisions. Second, put up a cadet pool with proposed rules on recruitment, protection and reinforcement of players that the PBA can sign on,” said Salud.
“As we transition towards largely a cadet pool system, we can phase in and phase out the cadet and PBA players, in agreement again with PBA owners,” Salud added.
He said he’s proposing a system that has the best chance of reaching a consensus among the stakeholders.