Five players from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) are definitely suiting up for Smart-Gilas in the FIBA-Asia Men’s Basketball championship later this year which serves as the qualifier for the 2012 London Olympics.
What’s not certain yet are the identities of the players reinforcing the national squad in its ambitious but complex bid to make it back to the Olympics after a 39-year absence.
Newly-appointed Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Executive Director Sonny Barrios confirmed in Tuesday’s PSA Forum at Shakey’s U.N. Ave. that the PBA Board has already endorsed the inclusion of the five pro players to be included in the Smart-Gilas roster.
“The Commissioner (Chito Salud) told me that the (PBA) Board has approved already the possibility of lending five PBA players to Smart Gilas,” Barrios announced in the same session presented by Smart, Shakey’s and PAGCOR.
“However, there’s no formal identity, yet I believe on who those five players will be.”
Under Barrios’ watch during his final term as PBA commissioner, three players led by Asi Taulava, Kelly Williams and Sol Mercado were lent by the pro league to Smart-Gilas when it went to war in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.