INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines—Jason Castro will not abandon Philippine basketball after all.

Castro will join the Philippine Basketball Association rookie draft even after the Australian National Basketball League had tapped the nifty 5-foot-10 guard as its first Filipino import.

“I’m leaving my papers for the draft with agent Danny (Espiritu),” Castro told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

Last month, PBA executive director Rickie Santos said the league granted the request of Castro, who is leaving on Wednesday for Sydney, to join the annual draft despite his absence next season.

The entry of Castro, a three-time Philippine Basketball League most valuable player, will boost this year’s draft pool if likely top draft pick, Filipino-American Gabe Norwood, fails to beat Tuesday’s deadline for foreign players with Filipino roots.

“It’s an opportunity for me to continue playing in the Philippines after my contract in the NBL,” said Castro in Filipino.

But the team that picks Castro—who fueled the championship runs of the Philippine team in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippine Christian University in the NCAA and Harbour Centre in the PBL—will have to wait after his stint with the Singapore Slingers from Sept. 17 to March.

A draft lottery during the Smart-PBA Fiesta Conference finals will determine which team will pick first during the rookie draft set on Aug. 31 at the Market! Market! mall in Taguig City.

Local players have until Aug. 12 to submit their draft applications before the league releases the final list of rookie hopefuls on Aug. 15.

Harbour Centre Fil-Ams Solomon Mercado and Rob Reyes submitted their application Monday to join early applicants TY Tang and Cholo Villanueva of De La Salle University, Mark Borboran and Kelvin Gregorio of University of the East, Far Eastern University’s Jeff Chan, National University’s Jonathan Fernandez and San Mig Coffee’s Kevin Dalafu.

Mercado, a former PBL Finals MVP, secured a confirmation from the Department of Justice, while Reyes submitted authentication documents from the Philippine embassy in the United States.