Gilas Pilipinas will undergo a drastic roster revamp to defend its men’s basketball gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA) in Thailand this December.
Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) executive director Erika Dy revealed that the host country is implementing FIBA eligibility rules for the biennial meet, affecting teams with multiple naturalized players, including Gilas.
“For the SEA Games, it’s going to be tough, especially because we received a circular last week from the hosts and they will be strict on FIBA rules,” Dy said after the SBP National Congress held Friday at the Meralco multi-purpose hall in Pasig City.
The strict FIBA rules only allow one naturalized player, while dual citizens must obtain a passport of the country they choose to represent by the age of 16 to be able to play as a local.
“So, this means, unlike in the past SEA Games where we can have an Ange Kouame and Justin Brownlee on the same team, that’s no longer going to happen, unless we can get Ange to play as a local somehow. But I think it’s going to take time for FIBA to even consider that,” Dy added.
With that said, SBP and head coach Tim Cone would have to choose from the Gilas pool of naturalized players who will suit up for the tricolors in the regional sports spectacle running from 7 to 19 December.
Gilas, which sends dual-citizen players who are ineligible to play in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments in the SEA Games and Asian Games, will also need to look for other names to fill its lineup.
The Chot Reyes-mentored Gilas that reclaimed the mint two years ago in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the expense of the heavily foreign player-reinforced host team was composed of cagers deemed naturalized players under FIBA rules.
Chris Ross, Christian Standhardinger, Mike Phillips and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, who all played as locals in the previous edition will be ineligible this time around.
“We have been discussing it a lot. We have no concrete plans yet, because there’s a lot of suggestions and we need to carefully study the best way to form a formidable team for this SEA Games,” Dy said.
In the past, host nations have been lax in basketball eligibility as players only needed to secure a passport from the country they are playing for.
Cambodia exploited it by fielding naturalized American players Darrin Dorsey, Darius Henderson, Dwayne Morgan, Brandon Peterson and Sayeed Pridgett.