SBP faces dilemma of forming Gilas squad

(UPDATE) SAMAHANG Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Al Panlilio knows the basketball grind ahead as Gilas Pilipinas kicks off the new year by competing in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifier for 2025.

But halfway through the opening month of 2024, the SBP has yet to name the head coach for Gilas, who’ll be tasked to man the national squad as the Philippines is bunched in Group B with New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, along with Hong Kong.

Still, Panlilio said the first order of the day when the New Year started was to gather all the basketball stakeholders, reveal the basketball calendar from 2024 through the next three years and seek their support.

SBP faces dilemma of forming Gilas squad

“It was the first Friday [of 2024] January 5, we had a meeting, coming together along the stakeholders, and showing the schedule not only in 2024 but all the way to 2027. Our request is to support completely the calendar,” Panlilio bared to former PBA commissioner Noli Eala in the latter’s “Power and Play” sports program on Saturday.

Without giving away details including who will be coaching Gilas, Panlilio said there are still several more kinks that are being discussed.

“We’re still working on some details,” he added.

But in retrospect, the SBP president said the national basketball federation has been constantly evaluating the different “models” implemented in the national team in recent years in an effort to be in tune with the changing basketball landscape.

“Moving forward, it’s very clear we have to look at it long term [because] we have many models. We have the Rajko (Toroman) years, young players who didn’t join the PBA yet (during that time),” Panlilio shared, a batch that included Mark Barroca, JVee Casio, Marcio Lassiter and Japeth Aguilar, who are now the established stars in the PBA.

“Then you had a mix of PBA players, and then we had the special drafting for PBA players coming in, (and then) the team under Tab (Baldwin) and under Chot (Reyes), so we have so many versions we implemented,” he added.

Panlilio explained that unlike past FIBA practices where tournaments are done in a matter of 10 days or two weeks, the new calendar that includes “windows” make it more complicated and challenging to form the national team given the availability of players, who are playing in various pro leagues.

“(The) challenges in scheduling, commitment of players, [these are what] we really have to look at,” he shared.

Panlilio though is happy to look back at 2023 when a hastily formed Gilas team under coach Tim Cone weathered the storm, fought through adversity, rode on the hot-shooting of naturalized player Justin Brownlee en route to winning the Asian Games men’s basketball gold in Hangzhou, China.

“That was a special team that went to China,” he said proudly.

“It’s not your best team because we were lacking the players that we wanted, but I think it wasn’t the Xs and Os anymore, but the chemistry that [was] built that sort of gave the pride. They just stuck together and fought together,” he added.