After arriving Friday night, naturalized Gilas Pilipinas center Andray Blatche immediately buckled down to work, Saturday morning at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City.
It was only Blatche who was present for Gilas, however, as his teammates are still honoring their commitments with their PBA teams. The league’s schedule features double-headers this weekend.
But Nationals head coach Yeng Guiao managed to call his former team Rain or Shine Elasto Painters to come over and join Blatche, so that they could orient the 6-foot-11 center with his system.
Blatche, who has been with the program since 2014, has finally made his return to Gilas after he was not included in the previous window of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Gilas went 0-2 in that window. They had Christian Standhardinger and Stanley Pringle taking turns as the team’s naturalized players.
Blatche will be returning to a Gilas team that is hard-pressed to fan its hopes of making it into the World Cup this July, as they are currently sitting on a precarious position with a 5-5 record.
