‘100% national team’: Revival of Gilas 1.0 program being considered

With the sudden withdrawal of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas from the 2018 Asian Games, the thought of reviving the program that started the Gilas 1.0 came into the picture.

This was the idea that popped up after Philippine Olympic Committee President Ricky Vargas said that they are looking into the future of the national basketball team program.

Vargas said they considering developing a group whose sole focus is international tournaments instead of plucking players from the PBA to form a national team.

“We really have to put up a national team that will be 100 percent national team, the development of a real national team,” said Vargas Friday in a media conference call at PBA office. “This will also be in cooperation with the PBA.”

“We’re happy they’re open to discussing this matter.”

The Gilas program started out with this structure. It had a core of collegiate players and only tapped the PBA for a couple of players in Asi Taulava and Jimmy Alapag to bolster the roster with naturalized center Marcus Douthit.

Dylan Ababou, Mac Baracael, JVee Casio, Jason Ballesteros, and Chris Tiu were just some of the members of the original Gilas program who played under head coach Rajko Toroman.

For future international tournaments including the 2023 Fiba World Cup, which the country is co-hosting, SBP is not discounting the possibility that the same program can be in place.

“The Gilas 1.0 model is an option,” said Vargas in Filipino. “We talked about that, we could use the Cadets until 2023 and after that they could join the PBA Draft. That’s a possibility we’re talking about.”