Jayson Castro agrees to return to Gilas for 2019 SEA Games

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Jayson Castro is coming off international retirement to rejoin Gilas Pilipinas in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games that the Philippines would be hosting from November to December.

Gilas coach Tim Cone said it took little convincing for them to get Castro back to the fold after the once best point guard in Asia retired from international duty to focus on married life during the PBA breaks.

“We have asked him to come back and join the program and I’m really proud of the fact that he decided to come back and help us out,” said Cone as per the PBA’s official website.

“He’s one of the big missing links in the last try we had [World Cup].”

Castro started his senior duty with the Philippines in international competition in 2013 when he led Gilas to the silver medal of the Fiba Asia Championship and he’s been the team’s reliable floor general ever since.

Castro, though, begged off from the World Cup so he could spend more time with his family after he married long time girlfriend Lyle in June.

Convincing Castro, though, started from the top down with PBA Chairman and TNT Governor Ricky Vargas phoning the Philippine basketball legend of the request.

“It was supposed to be me who’s going to ask him because we know he’s retired but the board wanted to know right away,” said Cone. “So Mr. Vargas called him and said we’d like you to un-retire and come back and play in the SEA Games and he said right away ‘yeah we’ll do it,’” said Cone.