TAIPEI—BA commissioner Chito Narvasa announced on Tuesday that all the PBA teams have agreed to release Gilas pool members to the national team that will vie in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon on Aug. 8-20.
This means coach Chot Reyes will have at his disposal all the players he named to the 24-man Gilas team from which the Final 12 will come.
Recent SEABA campaigners June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, Troy Rosario, Calvin Abueva, Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Jio Jalalon, Matthew Wright and RR Pogoy lead 19 PBA players in the 24-man roster.
Other PBA players in the list are Gabe Norwood, Norbert Torres, Kevin Alas, Baser Amer, Mac Belo, Kevin Ferrer, Chris Tolomia and Carl Bryan Cruz.
Naturalized player Andray Blatche, Fil-German Christian Standhardinger, Bobby Ray Parks, Kiefer Ravena, and Kobe Paras complete the list.
The release of the PBA players to the Gilas pool will be in accordance with the memorandum of agreement between the PBA and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas—30 days before the tourney among the Gilas cadets and 15 days among the PBA veterans.
Narvasa said they will try to find a way to settle the conflict of the PBA Governors Cup schedule with that of the Asia Cup.
“It always affects the PBA whenever there is a change in (FIBA) schedule. We’ll discuss it with (SBP president) Al Panlilio and coach Chot Reyes,” said Narvasa.
The PBA has made the necessary adjustments in its 2017-18 season to give way to the numerous window periods of the FIBA Asia world qualifiers.
One adjustment is to set the season in December.
“No specific date yet. We want to know the exact dates of the FIBA games first,” said Narvasa.