The presence of at least 36 NBA players playing for their respective national teams is creating a lot of excitement for the coming FIBA World Cup 2023.
As one of the three host teams, the Gilas Pilipinas seeks to live up to the expectations of Filipino fans as they play on its home turf. Coach Chot Reyes’ squad will be led by naturalized star Jordan Clarkson of the Utah Jazz, and he has been going through a process of reintegration with members of the squad over the last two weeks.
Clarkson, who is considered the Gilas’ main scoring threat, is averaging 30.8 points and four rebounds in the NBA’s last season.
“I think there’s not gonna be any problem in terms of integrating. It’s the familiarization and the little nuances. It is easy to learn an offense, and it is easy to pick up. But it’s the little nuances of the counters, the tweaks, the reads which you can only get in-game time situation that’s a really important concern,” said Reyes.
Clarkson, which has been with Gilas for two weeks, will have his game tweaked with big man Kai Sotto, the brothers Kiefer and Thirdy Ravenna, marksman Bobby Ray Parks, Jr., and veteran center June Mar Fajardo.
Reyes also seeks to tune in AJ Edu, a Cypriot-born Filipino basketball player for Toyama Grouses of the Japanese B.League, who at 6 feet 10 inches, plays at the power forward and center positions.
So far, Team Philippines has gone into a tuneup with Côte d’Ivoire, ranked 42nd in the world,
The two-time FIBA AfroBasket champions have no known NBA player on their roster when they engaged Gilas in a friendly on Saturday. Montenegro, ranked 18th, will have their opportunity on August 20.
The Ivorians, who are on their second appearance, have veterans like Vafessa Fofana, a member of the 2019 World Cup team who played in all 12 games of the African Qualifiers, and 36-year-old Souleymane Diabate and 24-year-old Maxence Dadiet.
Diabate and Dadiet have both played in nine of the African Qualifiers.
Gilas will be more challenged in their clash with Montenegro, which has Nikola Vucevic, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, along with a former Bull cager Marko Simonovic.
The Montenegrin will also feature Kendrick Perry, Igor Drobnjak, Petar Popovic, Vladimir Mihailovic, Andrija Slavkovic, Dino Radoncic, Aleksa Ilic, Nemanja Radovic, Marko Simonovic, and Bojan Dubljevic.
The Philippines is bracketed with the Dominican Republic, Angola, and Italy in Group A.
Will have the Dominican Republic as their first opponent on August 25.
The Dominican Republic will have with them Karl-Anthony Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Lester Quinones (Golden State Warriors), and they are in Group A with The Philippines, Angola, and Italy.
Italy will be a challenge for Gilas with Clarkson’s teammate Simone Fontecchio competing against him, and Team Philippines.
Another NBA star Luka Doncik of the Dallas Mavericks will strut his stuff for Slovenia that will play in Group F in Okinawa, Japan and face Cape Verde, Georgia, and Venezuela. If it advances to the second round, Slovenia will meet teams from Group E consisting of Germany, Australia, Finland, and host Japan. Slovenia and Doncik will fly to the Philippines if they make it to the semifinals and onwards.
