MANILA, Philippines - If plans don’t miscarry and budget allows, Gilas will undergo overseas training in Europe on June 10-27 with a pocket tournament in Bologna, Italy, to cap the program before the Philippine national basketball team returns home for a tune-up game against Turkey on July 1.
“Right now, we’re in the process of obtaining management approval,” said SBP deputy executive director for international affairs Butch Antonio the other day. “Coach Tab (Baldwin) will resume practice on May 18 as he called off the Monday sessions when the PBA playoffs started. Those in the Gilas 24-man pool whose teams have been eliminated (in the Commissioner’s Cup) are now taking a break before reporting for practice.”
Naturalized player Andray Blatche, now in Atlanta, will arrive here May 15. With Rain Or Shine ousting San Miguel Beer in Game 4 the other night, only three teams remain in contention for the Commissioner’s Cup title. Players in the Gilas pool with the three PBA teams are Rain Or Shine’s Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan and Paul Lee and Alaska’s Calvin Abueva. The Gilas players whose teams have been eliminated in the PBA are Jayson Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo, Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Ryan Reyes, Troy Rosario and Mo Tautuaa of Talk ‘N’ Text, Greg Slaughter, L. A. Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra, Globalport’s Terrence Romeo, Star’s Marc Pingris and San Miguel Beer’s JuneMar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter . The non-PBA players in the Gilas 24-man pool are Kiefer Ravena, Mac Belo, Kevin Ferrer, Russell Escoto, R. R. Pogoy, Bobby Ray Parks and Blatche.
Antonio said the plan is for Gilas to set up training camp in Greece where Baldwin coached the PAOK Thessaloniki club in 2007-08 and has extensive connections. Baldwin’s wife Efi is Greek. Practice games are in the works during the camp. Antonio said Gilas is penciled to compete in a two-day pocket tournament in Bologna against Italy, China and Canada on June 25-26.
The first-day pairings in the Bologna tournament are Italy against the Philippines and China against Canada on June 25. The next day, the winners face off for the championship and the losers play for third place. China has qualified for the Rio Olympics by virtue of beating the Philippines in the FIBA Asia final in Changsha last year. Italy is hosting an Olympic qualifier at the 16,600-seat Pala Alpitour in Turin on July 4-9. Joining Italy in the six-team qualifier are Greece, Mexico, Iran, Tunisia and Croatia. Canada will play in the qualifier that Manila is hosting at the MOA Arena on July 5-10. Also listed in the Manila qualifier are France, New Zealand, Turkey and Senegal.
FIBA will hold an Olympic qualifier at the 25,000-seat Kombank Arena in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 4-9 with the host country, Angola, Puerto Rico, Japan, Czech Republic and Latvia battling for a ticket to Rio. Only three slots are up for grabs in Rio and they’ll be awarded to the winners of each Olympic qualifying tournament. The nine countries booked for Rio are the US, Australia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, Lithuania, China and host Brazil.
A draw was recently conducted at the FIBA headquarters called the House of Basketball in Mies, Switzerland, where the US, Venezuela, China and Australia were picked to play with two Olympic qualifiers in one bracket and Argentina, Spain, Brazil, Lithuania and Nigeria were chosen to play with one Olympic qualifier in the other bracket. The draw to determine where the Olympic qualifiers will be bracketed is scheduled after the championship game in the Manila tournament on July 10.
Blatche is training with several specialty coaches before leaving for Manila. He is also set to appear in workouts with NBA teams. Master elite basketball trainer Christopher Thomas will begin workouts with Blatche this week. A trainer who met with Blatche for a day was “The Hoops Whisperer” author Idan Ravin, known for his unorthodox drills, improvisational techniques and mental exercises.
Golden State Warriors guard and NBA MVP Steph Curry is one of several stars in Ravin’s client list. “Idan inspired me to see my full potential, to become more than others had ever expected of me and to challenge myself to do more than I had even expected of myself,” said Curry. “He showed me the importance of resilience and determination and to capitalize on all my opportunities I had coming out of school and even to this day. His challenge to never become ‘regular’ stuck with me and kept me fierce in my determination to be committed to whom I am, what I stand for and to leave my lasting fingerprints on the game I so dearly love.” Others who’ve worked with Lavin are Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.
“Dray has multiple trainers,” said a source close to Blatche. “It’s across the board and everyone has his own specialty. Dray likes different trainers for different things.” Blatche, 29, hasn’t played organized basketball since his final game in the Chinese league this past season last Feb. 3.
Antonio said a practice game against Iran is being finalized here on June 8 before Gilas leaves for Greece. Iran is playing in the Olympic qualifier in Turin. Like Blatche, Iran center Hamed Haddadi played in the Chinese league last season. They squared off in the semifinals where Haddadi’s team Sichuan eliminated Blatche’s team Xinjiang in a sweep of their best-of-five series. Sichuan went on to beat Liaoning, 4-1, in the best-of-seven finals for the title.