Gilas selection group formed

A selection committee, composed mostly of officials of major basketball stakeholders in the PBA and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, has been created to oversee the composition of the Gilas Pilipinas squad.

This was arrived at on Tuesday night after PBA commissioner Chito Salud attended the SBP’s board of trustees meeting where SBP president Ricky Vargas, executive director Sonny Barrios, PBA chair Patrick Gregorio, vice chair Robert Non and Salud were named to the committee.

Salud also said that other members will be named in the coming days and these members “could come from anywhere.”

“The selection committee will be tasked to look for a head coach and make suggestions on which players will make up the pool,” Salud said.

(Amid reports that this development meant the axing of Chot Reyes, the SBP qualified that the mercurial national coach is still in the running for the same post. — Ed)

The same committee, according to Salud, will also synchronize the schedule of the PBA and all the major tournaments that Gilas will play in next year, counting the Fiba Asia Qualifier for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

“We just need to ‘tweak’ the Gilas Pilipinas program,” Salud told the Inquirer over the phone after reporting the development to the league’s board of governors during a regular meeting yesterday in Libis, Quezon City.

“The SBP and the PBA are one in the quest to improve the current performance of Gilas,” Salud added.