CONSPICUOUSLY missing from the Gilas Pilipinas team pool are (from left) June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer,Marc Pingris of Star Hotshots and LA Tenorio of Barangay Ginebra.
For the first time since the pro league started providing the backbone of the Philippine team in 1990, the national five won’t have a player from the powerhouse San Miguel Corp. conglomerate in its ambitious bid to qualify for the Olympics next year.
This incredible development materialized Saturday when Marc Pingris, the Star Hotshots’ tenacious rebounder and defender, begged off from national team duty, saying he wants to concentrate on his team’s preparations for the 41st PBA Season, which opens on Oct. 18.
Pingris personally informed national coach Tab Baldwin of his decision during a workout by Gilas Pilipinas and bid the national team an emotional adieu.
READ: Marc Pingris officially begs off from Gilas
Gilas Pilipinas departs for Estonia today to play in a four-nation pocket tournament. There the Filipinos will play against bigger, more talented foes compared to the ones they will face in the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship next month in Changsa City in Hunan, China.
This will be the first tournament for this batch of Nationals who are seeking Asia’s lone berth in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
The previous Gilas team, which finished out of the medal in the Asian Games in South Korea last year, had four players from the SMC umbrella—Pingris, June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer and LA Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra.
Fajardo, Tenorio and Aguilar earlier begged off from the latest Gilas squad for different reasons. Pingris initially said he would join the pool once he returned from France, where he and his family visited with his French father.
READ: Pingris’ withdrawal from Gilas ‘a tragedy,’ says Baldwin
The 6-foot-9 Fajardo said he has a heel injury in both feet while Tenorio cited fatigue and poor form. Aguilar had surgery to a broken finger while another top prospect, Marcio Lassiter, is still in the United States to be with his ailing mother.
“I love Gilas, but there are things that are beyond my control,” Pingris told reporters in Filipino after showing up for the Nationals’ practice. He later on talked off the record.
San Miguel’s participation in the national team program has been long and rich, with the PBA franchise even contributing the core of its All-Filipino champion team in the 1998 Asian Games squad.
That team was sprinkled with talent from other teams like Johnny Abarrientos and Alvin Patrimonio and amateurs Kenneth Duremdes and Marlou Aquino.
The first time the PBA backed the national five came during the 1990 Asiad with four-time MVP Ramon Fernandez leading an all-star squad coached by Robert Jaworski. The Nationals finished second behind mighty China.
The Powerade national team that played in the 2011 Tianjin Fiba Asia also had several players from the San Miguel group, including James Yap of Purefoods and Arwind Santos of San Miguel Beer, who would later on win MVPs in the PBA.
Team Philippines will play the Netherlands, Iceland and Estonia starting Aug. 21 in its first overseas outing before returning home for a brief rest. The Nationals fly out again to vie in the Jones Cup in Chinese Taipei, a tournament they won in 2012.