The FIBA rule is a national team may enlist only one naturalized player but opens its doors to foreigners who show passports issued before they turned 16. However, the door is shut on players of heritage who received their passports after turning 16 despite their bloodline or Constitutional rights.
Theoretically, a national team may recruit 12 foreigners who are below 16 and line them up in the roster for as long as they are given their passports before turning 16. Bloodline or heritage is irrelevant. Under the rule, a national team that recruits 12 foreign-born players of heritage may not include them in the roster if they weren’t issued their passports before turning 16, regardless of their bloodline.
Italy is one of 12 European countries that qualified for the FIBA World Cup in China on Aug. 31-Sept. 15. Italy’s naturalized players are 6-8 Christian Burns of Philadelphia University and 6-8 Jeff Brooks of Penn State, the same school that produced Stanley Pringle. Because of the FIBA rule limiting each national team to one naturalized player, Italy alternates Burns and Brooks since they can’t play together. Brooks, 29, was born in Louisville and received his Italian passport last year while Burns, 33, was born in New Jersey and received his Italian passport in 2017.
In the 12-game FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, Burns averaged 8.1 points in eight contests and Brooks, 8.3 points in three. Italy didn’t suit up a naturalized player in its last game against Lithuania.
Aside from Burns and Brooks, Italy has two Italian-born Italian-Americans, a player born in Argentina and an Italian-born Ghanaian-Nigerian who received his Italian passport at 18. The Italian-Americans are 6-6 Daniel Hackett of the University of Southern California and 6-3 Nico Mannion of the University of Arizona. Their fathers (Rudy Hackett and Pace Mannion) were NBA players and mothers are Italian. Mannion’s mother Gaia was a professional volleyball player in Italy. There’s no problem with their eligibility as locals because they were born in Italy and are players of heritage.
Ariel Filloy, 31, was born in Cordoba, Argentina. It is not certain if he has Italian heritage but the records show that he started playing in Italy when he was 15. It’s possible he received his Italian passport before turning 16. He’s a dual citizen as he also has an Argentinian passport.
Awudu Abass, 26, is the player in question. His father is from Ghana and mother from Nigeria but he was born in Como, Italy. Under Italian law, a foreigner with no bloodline may not acquire Italian citizenship by naturalization regardless of where he was born until he turns 18. That means the 6-7 Abass could not have been issued his Italian passport before turning 16. However, FIBA has been known to make exceptions to the naturalization limit as in the case of South Sudanese Thon Maker of the Detroit Pistons. Maker, 22, moved to Australia as a refugee with his family when he was five and his long years of residence gained his recognition as a local by FIBA. For the record, Abass averaged 10.3 points in 12 games during the Qualifiers and played alongside Filloy, Burns, Hackett, Mannion and Brooks.
Poland played two foreigners in six of the 12 games in the World Cup Qualifiers. A. J. Slaughter, 31, is a 6-3 guard born in Louisville from Western Kentucky University where Japeth Aguilar once played. He received his Polish passport at 28. The other foreigner is Aaron Cel, born in Orleans, France. Cel, 32, is a 6-8 forward who played for the French national U16 and U18 teams then moved to Poland in 2011. He joined the Polish national squad in 2014. If he acquired his Polish citizenship in 2011, Cel would’ve been 24. There is a FIBA rule that a player may suit up for only one national team in his lifetime. Cel appears to be an exception. Poland will join the cast of 32 in the World Cup.
Surely, if there are exceptions to the FIBA rule granted to countries like Italy, Australia and Poland, Jordan Clarkson may be given consideration to play for the Philippines as a local.