Abueva shows up for Gilas practice

CALVIN Abueva listens intently as Gilas Pilipinas assistant coach Jong Uichico explains a play during practice. TRISTAN TAMAYO/INQUIRER.net

CALVIN Abueva finally showed up for Gilas Pilipinas duties yesterday, putting to 14 the number of active players on the floor for coach Tab Baldwin and leaving naturalized Andray Blatche as the only one left unaccounted for.

The Alaska small forward, who will likely be a shooting guard for the National side under Baldwin, looked fresh as a daisy after a six-day break.

Abueva, like Rain or Shine’s Paul Lee, Jeff Chan and Gabe Norwood, was originally scheduled to join the team on Tuesday but asked permission from Baldwin because of a previous personal commitment.

Blatche, meanwhile, is expected to arrive tomorrow after attending to his ailing mother in the United States.

The mother of the 6-foot-11 former Brooklyn Nets star in the NBA was supposed to undergo a sensitive operation Tuesday.

Meanwhile, with Paul Lee begging off from the Gilas pool because of a knee injury, Rain or Shine management told reporters on Tuesday night that they would be willing to lend another one of their prized players to the pool, Raymond Almazan.

Baldwin, in earlier reports, had said that he wanted Almazan in the pool but never got the go-signal from Rain or Shine. That all changed on Tuesday when Lee talked to Baldwin that he would skip the team this year to have his left knee heal.

The only problem is that the 6-foot-7 Almazan is not in the original 24-man pool sent by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to Fiba and injured players can only be replaced by those coming from the original list.

Last week, Baldwin had already lost Greg Slaughter and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser to injuries.

Lee’s withdrawal has left Norwood as the only healthy Elasto Painter in the pool, with Chan still trying to recover from a groin injury suffered in the title-clinching Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals against Alaska last week.

Chan attended practice for the second straight game and watched from the sidelines.