By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas is playing an all-local crew with Justin Brownlee, as confirmed by head coach Tim Cone, won’t be able to make it in time for the August window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
But in the wake of the news that Brownlee won’t be suiting up for Gilas, fans naturally wondered where are the other supposed reinforcements for Gilas when part of the program is having a pool of naturalized players in standby.
They should have been the alternative with Brownlee out, right?
It turned out other naturalized players — or candidates to some extent – are also not available for Gilas.
Former San Miguel import Bennie Boatwright could have been the most logical choice, except that he is not yet Filipino.
According to Cone, Boatwright papers are not making it in time for the qualifiers which will begin on Friday, Aug. 28 when the Filipinos take on Jordan.
“We couldn’t get Bennie Boatwright. His paper is done, he still doesn’t have his passport. He hasn’t had his final approval yet so we haven’t been able to get that done,” revealed Cone.
The other option is Ange Kouame, who already played under Cone during the country’s Asian Games gold medal run in 2022. The 6-foot-10 Fil-Ivorian, however, is currently under contract in France.
“Then our other naturalized player that we would have brought, Ange Kouame, is in France under contract,” explained the veteran mentor.
During the 2023 FIBA World Cup, New York Knicks star Jordan Clarkson served as the team’s naturalized player.
However, given the tight schedule and the economics around bringing in an NBA caliber player is a different point of discussion altogether.
Gilas could have also tapped a Filipino-American in the PBA and taken the naturalized player spot similar to the case of Christian Standhardinger in the past.
But given the intricacies of Cone’s triangle system and the familiarity to the current pool, the coaching staff might have just opted to stick with the ones in the current pool and give the young guns an opportunity to shine.
