PBA commits Gilas backing

ASI TAULAVA (behind) and Marc Pingris celebrate a Philippines victory over Japan in the semifinals. FIBA.COM

CHANGSHA CITY, China—Win or lose, the “glory days of basketball in the Philippines are here again.”

Those were the words of PBA board chair Robert Non, who flew back for home on Saturday morning but not after stating that Asia’s pioneering pro league is ready to alter its schedule for the coming season to accommodate Gilas Pilipinas.

“Basketball is enjoying a progress in the country, and it’s a matter of continuing that progress and retaining the glory,” Non told Filipino scribes over breakfast, shortly before heading for the airport to board a flight for Hong Kong together with some members of the board.

“Hopefully, tonight is the start,” Non said, referring to Gilas Pilipinas’ game against invincible China for the Fiba Asia Championship gold medal and the lone continental berth for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“Definitely, the PBA will have to make changes in schedule,” Non, the San Miguel Beer board representative, continued. “We’re ready to make a change. We just have to know what that schedule [of those tournaments] would be.”

Non was referring to the change in schedule should the Philippines fall short and would be required to go to another qualifying process against teams all over the world.

“But we (board) are hoping for the best, we are hoping that we win [the title game] so that we automatically qualify for the Olympics.”

Fiba has devised a qualifying process that would take teams in the Final Four from each continent into another qualifying tournament a month before the Olympics.

The site of that tournament is still unknown and up for grabs.

Along with the loser of the title game set at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday between the Filipinos and the Chinese, teams who fail to make the grade from the other continents will have one last shot to make it to the Games with these qualifying events.

Gilas Pilipinas has certainly overachieved just by making it to the championship game, claiming Iran, the defending champion, as one of its victims in a seven-game winning streak that came after a shock loss to Palestine in the inaugurals.