KG Canaleta and Calvin Abueva will power the two Philippine Basketball Association teams in the 2014 Fiba 3×3 World Tour Manila-Masters starting tomorrow at Mega Fashion Hall of SM Megamall.
Canaleta of Talk ‘N Text has been tasked to carry the fight for the Manila West squad with Terrence Romeo of Globalport, Rey Guevarra of Meralco and Air21’s Aldrech Ramos.
With Abueva as top gunner, Manila North will have Ian Sangalang of San Mig Coffee, Vic Manuel of Alaska and Jake Pascual of NLEX.
They will be ranged against eight foreign teams and two more local squads in a bid to earn tickets to the Fiba 3×3 World Championship in Tokyo in October.
Manila East will have Ateneo’s Ousseynou Karbala Gueye, Darryl Henderson Jr., John Adrian Wong and Jerie Marlon Pingoy while the national champion Naga City Titans have lined up Joshua Irvin Ayo, Adonis Christian Nismal, Karl Kenneth Estrada and Raphael Jude De Vera for Manila South.
“In behalf of SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan, we in SBP invite everyone to watch world class 3×3 basketball this Saturday and Sunday,” said SBP executive director Sonny Barrios. “Let us again show our foreign visitors warm Filipino hospitality and prove to them that basketball is more fun in the Philippines.”
No official coaches
The foreign challenge will come from Jakarta, Doha, Yogyakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Kobe, Xinzhuang and Auckland in the tournament where the top two teams earn slots to the 3×3 Fiba World Tour Final in Tokyo on Oct. 11 and 12.
Though 3×3 competitions require no official coaches, mentors Eric Altamirano, who handled the national team in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, and John Flores of the 2013 Fiba Asia champion 3×3 squad led by Kobe Paras, will be in charge with preparing and training the four RP teams on the nuances of the event.
Bracketed in Pool A are Jakarta, Medan and Manila South; Doha, Kobe, Manila West make up Pool B; Auckland, Xinzhuang and Manila North compose Pool C; and Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Manila East comprise Pool D.
The format calls for a one-round elimination per group. The top two teams move to the eight-team knockout quarterfinals with the emerging four advancing to the crossover semis. The winners dispute the title, with the champion getting $10,000 and the runnerup $5,000.