Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra shares a laugh with Marcio Lassiter of San Miguel Beer during the national team pool practice Monday night. Slaughter and Lassiter were both part of the original Smart Gilas program established in 2009. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
It took almost a decade for Greg Slaughter to be back serving the national team.
But before the Barangay Ginebra center can actually play for the Philippines in the international stage, he must first iron out the kinks of his eligibility.
Despite representing the country before as a member of the original Smart Gilas program created in 2009, Slaughter said he still needs to meet some requirements by Fiba to be allowed to play as a local.
“First of all, my main problem is getting the remaining documents they’re asking for with the short window. So I gotta worry about that,” Slaughter told INQUIRER.net.
National team coach Yeng Guiao said Slaughter’s predicament further complicates the team’s situation as far as coming up with the final lineup for the fourth window of the Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers against Iran and Qatar beginning on September 13 in Tehran.
“We have to be certain on the situation of Greg, Christian (Standhardinger) and Stanley (Pringle),” Guiao said after Monday night’s practice as he held out on announcing his 12-man lineup until something concrete unfolds.
“If we’re not able to complete the documents of Greg, our situation will get harder because we have to choose between those three guys who we will designate as our naturalized player,” added Guiao, who is hoping that Slaughter, Filipino-German Christian Standhardinger and Fil-American Stanley Pringle will be given the green light by Fiba to play as locals.
Guiao said one the requirements Slaughter needs to present to Fiba is a proof that he was able to secure a Philippine passport before he turned 16 years old.
But that’s not the only thing that Slaughter is worried about.
“After that, next is, I gotta worry about that giant Haddadi out there,” said Slaughter, referring to Iran’s 7-foot-2 big man Hamed Haddadi.
“But you know, with coach Yeng and all my teammates around, I’m confident. I feel like we can take on any team, we got a great group of guys, all great attitudes, all really excited and it gets me excited to play.”