Playing for Gilas Pilipinas was only a dream for Thirdy Ravena until Tuesday.
Ravena is set to make his Gilas Pilipinas debut on Friday after making the team’s 12-man lineup against Qatar in the Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers—an inclusion that turned out to be four years in the making.
The 22-year-old Ravena rummaged through his Twitter account and pulled out an old tweet he wrote way back in July 2015.
READ: Fiba World Cup qualifiers: Thirdy Ravena makes Gilas Pilipinas’ final vs Qatar
The Ateneo superstar was the lone collegiate player chosen to be part of the national team pool.
Ravena joined Jayson Castro, June Mar Fajardo, Andray Blatche, Scottie Thompson, Poy Erram, Marcio Lassiter, Troy Rosario, Mark Barroca, Paul Lee, Gabe Norwood and Japeth Aguilar in the final roster.