Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
The Philippine team converged for its first practice on Monday night just eight days before the 2018 Asian Games comes off wraps in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The almost every player in the 14-man pool attended training except for Fil-German Christian Standhardinger, who just played for San Miguel Beer in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Sunday night.
“We’re just trying to bring them together for the first time,” said national team coach Yeng Guiao before practice at Meralco gym.
“Probably, start of practice we’ll just be talking and making some announcements, reminding the guys what will happen the next few days and just familiarizing ourselves with each other.”
Paul Lee, Stanley Pringle and Gilas captain Gabe Norwood led the attendees.
They were joined by Rain or Shine’s James Yap, Chris Tiu, Beau Belga, Raymond Almazan, Maverick Ahanmisi, NLEX’s Asi Taulava, Blackwater’s JP Erram and Gilas cadets Kobe Paras and Ricci Rivero.
Rivero came straight to practice despite going on a 17-hour flight from Serbia, where he and the rest of the University of the Philippines held their training camp.