Gilas Pilipinas left Manila on Wednesday with just one goal in mind: Win the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup title.
Gilas coach Tim Cone and his crew held one last practice session in the morning before their evening flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia days before action erupts in the prestigious continental cage tilt running from 5 to 17 August.
The Filipinos are on a mission to end a 40-year title drought and bounce back from missing the quarterfinals of the last edition held in Jakarta three years ago.
“Well, I’ll say it again. Our goal is to win a gold medal. That’s our goal. We’re gonna go out there and try to win a gold medal,” Cone said following Gilas’ 103-98 win over the Macau Black Bears last Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Will we? I’m not sure. That’s certainly our goal.”
Gilas will have one more tune-up game against Jordan on 2 August before opening its campaign in Group D on 6 August.
The Philippines has not won title since the 1985 edition. Gilas’ last podium finish was in 2015 as runner-up to then host China.
Cone is confident, despite the absence of injured 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto and Calvin Oftana’s availability in doubt, Gilas has all the right pieces to compete for the crown.
But the decorated mentor doesn’t want to look too far ahead as the road to the coveted hardware is riddled with tough challenges.
Cone wants to fine tune Gilas’ system in the remaining days before the main draw as well as integrate big man June Mar Fajardo into their offensive and defensive schemes.
The 6-foot-10 San Miguel Beer center sat out the friendly against the Black Bears to rest following a grueling six-game Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals series the Beermen won over the TNT Tropang 5G.
Fajardo is also nursing a calf injury he sustained during the semifinals against Tim Cone’s Barangay Ginebra.
Although Gilas is looking at the big picture, Cone wants to focus first on the task at hand.
Gilas will play Chinese Taipei in the opener. The two teams split their first two meetings during the qualifying windows.
“(But) that’s (winning gold) not what we’re focused on though. We’re focused on every day. What we do every day. We’re focused right now on the first game we play, and beyond that there’s nothing,” Cone said.
Gilas will battle New Zealand, another squad that the Filipinos had a split head-to-head in the qualifiers, on the 8th before taking on Iraq on the 10th.
“But right now, our goal is to certainly win a gold medal,” Cone said.
“We’ll do what we can to get there. But we’re not gonna look that far ahead. Right now, our goal is there but we’re focused on what’s in front of us.”
Cone is set to name his Final 12 in the coming days
Naturalized player Justin Brownlee leads the crack Gilas squad also composed of Dwight Ramos, Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, Chris Newsome, Carl Tamayo, CJ Perez, AJ Edu, Japeth Aguilar, Kevin Quiambao, Troy Rosario and RJ Abarrientos.