By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team will be targeting an overseas training camp as part of their series of preparations for the upcoming 2023 FIBA World Cup.
According to Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), Gilas’ trip to the United States and Europe next year are their top priorities to further solidify its intensive camp as the World Cup draws to a near.
SBP president Al Panlilio confirmed the development and added that the US & Europe trips might materialize starting May next year.
“The player start getting together by May. That’s the plan. Most probably, there’ll be a camp in the United States which Jordan Clarkson can attend,” said Panlilio.
As of this moment, the SBP is yet to announce the date that Clarkson will be with the team for their full-blast training camp.
The SBP already finalized that Clarkson will be their naturalized player for the World Cup and will adjust with whatever available schedule he will have to avoid conflict with the NBA.
For the meantime, the SBP still has Ange Kouame under their naturalized player selection while Barangay Ginebra resident import Justin Brownlee will have to pass the congress first before representing the Philippines.
Aside from their international intensive training camps, the national team is also slated to join a couple of pocket tournaments to serve as a roster warm-up next year.
“That’s being looked sometime in June or July siguro kasi a lot of the national federations come earlier so that they can get acclimatized to the weather, the time zone, and they’re also asking for friendlies,” Panlilio added.
Panlilio reiterated that all of their plans will be executed once they already form the final personnel for the World Cup including the players, coaching staff, etc.
Several months ago, a Gilas Monday training session already kicked off with the main aim of familiarizing the system they will use on the international stage.
Almost every PBA star named in the national team roster and several college main gunners already participated in the practice sessions together with head coach Chot Reyes and assistant Tim Cone.
