You're on your own

"Where my teammates at?!"
(Photo credits to the owner)

Sound the alarm.

We only have a few weeks left before the FIBA Asia - 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic qualifying tournament opens in China in September 5. That being said, while other Asian teams have already declared their intended pool and rosters (even participating in several tune-up tournaments as of this printing) we Filipinos could only wonder who's going to even be invited to Gilas camp headed by coach Tab Baldwin.

Here are some of the things we've heard so far: there's a concern among non MVP teams regarding the whole "lend us your players or face media backlash" ploy. Which doesn't help that they (the Gilas heads) have already been accused at one point or another of whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the players that were loaned to them (hello, L.A. Tenorio). Which also doesn't help the fact that we're asking teams to lend their employees, who they pay for and take care of, to play elsewhere-- FREE and risk getting hurt and so on.


The last part was not intended to make the teams sound unpatriotic. Business is business. And what good is a horse if you loaned it to someone else for a different race, only for that same horse to be returned to you in bad condition?

Again, apologies for the harshness. But it's the simple truth.

So here is what we know:

Team MVP has four teams in the league: Talk'n'Text, Meralco, NLEX and... Blackwater.

Team SMC has San Miguel, Ginebra, STAR and... Barako... and GlobalPort.

Alaska and Rain or Shine are indie teams, but have had troubling episodes with some of their Gilas alumni.

Can we build a team, a Gilas, from Team MVP alone?

YES.

We shouldn't. But if all else fails, we can.

PG Jayson Castro  
SG  Gary David
SF Matt Rosser
PF Ranidel de Ocampo
C Andray Blatche

PG Brian Heruela
SG Larry Fonacier
SF Jarred Dillinger
PF Cliff Hodge
C Asi Taulava

SG John Wilson
SF/ PF Nino Canaleta

You could even throw in Mike Cortez and Jonas Villanueva in there, with Heruela being the young buck option (as big and wise as both). Kelly Nabong is another option at power forward/ center. To bring in that Pingris crazy/ hustle.

Let's hope that this isn't the case. And that a Gilas 3 line-up is named before July ends.