Gilas Pilipinas Basketball

Naturalized players Andray Blatche and Christian Standhardinger might not be available for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers this November 2017 and February 2018.

[adinserter name=”singlepost”]

Andray Blatche will still play for the defending Champions of the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association), the Xinjiang Flying Tigers which will start in October. Meanwhile, Christian Standhardinger is set to play for the ABL (ASEAN Basketball League) defending champions, Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions which will start this November. Both leagues usually end by April, it is not certain if their respective teams will allow them to play for Gilas Pilipinas and miss some games in November and February.

This means Gilas Pilipinas might play without a naturalized player in the Qualifiers. It takes a long time to naturalize a foreign player if SBP will try to get a replacement for Blatche and Standhardinger.

1st game of Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers will be against Japan on November 24 followed by Chinese-Taipei on November 27. Then next year, they will face Australia on February 22 and Japan again on February 25. Other games will be on June/July 2018 and September 2018.

Top three teams in each Group will advance to the 2nd round. All games will be in the Home-and-Away format which will give us a chance to cheer Gilas at home.

[adinserter name=”InArticle”]