Waiting on Team SMC

Ang paglaro para sa bayan,
hindi na dapat pinag iisipan pa

11 players have signed on the dotted line for SMART Gilas 2.

5 players have yet to submit their Letter of Intent-- some, still busy with the ongoing PBA Playoffs, others, not so much.

How hard is it to sign up for something that you want to be part of? To wear the proud yellow, red, blue and white of your native land? To champion over 94 million (as of the 2010 census) Filipinos here, and some hundred thousand plus overseas? To carry the dream, no matter how short we've fallen year after year?


This is to officially call out the San Miguel Corporation employees who were selected to be part of the SMART Gilas 2 "wish list" formed by head coach Chot Reyes. B-Meg's James Yap and Marc Pingris and Petron's Arwind Santos and Alex Cabagnot. Oh, and there's Powerade's Marcio Lassiter (but you know where this is going by now).

Five guys who could very well play vital roles in the bigger FIBA Asia picture. Pingris, Santos and Lassiter are all-PBA elite level defenders. Cabagnot is arguably the most creative point guard in the PBA today.

Yap? Well, he's still a better athlete overall than SMART Gilas 1 poster boy Chris Tiu. A player? Not so much. Yap's turned into a spoiled superstar who needs 20 shots to get 25. Tiu? Solid role player who can knockdown baskets and masquerade as a decent ball handler when his PG isn't available.

Hopefully, this is just a minute setback in what promises to be a solid campaign for Philippine basketball as a whole.

If the SMC-5 won't be made available, then Reyes still has a bunch of candidates to choose from namely, and in the same position as the guys named above: Willie Miller, Sol Mercado, Mac Cardona, Jarred Dillinger and young project JayR Reyes.

Kudos on Ginebra's Rico Villanueva for signing his Letter of Intent ASAP. As the most questionable selection of the entire roster, this is the chance he needs to re-emerge as one of the PBA's top power forwards.

Simple lang naman talaga e, kung gusto me paraan, kung ayaw me dahilan.