TNT core, Gilas cadets, Blatche to represent PH in Asian Games

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

Core players from TNT, Gilas cadets, and naturalized center Andray Blatche will be the central piece of the Philippine team that will compete in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas on announced on Thursday that Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas is sending seven or eight players from the KaTropa roster, four members from the Gilas Cadets program, Blatche and one player from Alaska to the Games.

The Gilas Cadets likely to be part of the roster are Ricci Rivero, Kobe Paras, and Bobby Ray Parks Jr.

Vargas said the selection of TNT as the core for the national team will help them mitigate the scheduling problems the Asian Games will bring to the PBA.

The 2018 Asian Games will start on August 18 and end on September, smack in the middle of the Governors’ Cup.

“If we do send a team in the Asian Games that means we will have to stop the league for one-and-a-half months,” said Vargas after the board meeting on Tuesday. “So what the board talked about was why don’t we send a core group from one team so we will deal with the playing schedule of just one team.”

Either Calvin Abueva or Carl Bryan Cruz, meanwhile, will join the KaTropa core in the Philippine roster.

The SBP and PBA’s move is similar to the 1994 roster that participated in the Hiroshima Games when San Miguel and Purefoods players comprised most of the team.

“Everybody in the PBA Board wants to participate in the Asian Games but they also want to be competitive,” said Vargas. “They also want to find a solution to the challenges so many things were discussed.”