Chris Newsome won’t just leave his brothers behind as Meralco shoots for the remaining ticket to the 2024-25 East Asia Super League (EASL) Final Four.
The star guard is choosing to fight alongside his Bolts and they will all fly to Taiwan to face New Taipei in a virtual knockout on Wednesday, even though he could’ve immediately rejoined Gilas for its FIBA Asia Cup 2025 build-up.
“We have EASL. We still have a chance,” he said with much optimism. “If we win this game, then we’re in the Final Four. So, I definitely don’t want to abandon my brothers whenever they have a chance to get to the semis.”
It is going to be a hectic schedule for Newsome over the next two weeks with this choice of his to suit up and play for his mother team first.
After the New Taipei game, the 34-year-old will fly to Qatar the following day to join the national team for the 2nd Doha International Cup, a pocket tourney in which they will be taking on the host country, Lebanon, and Egypt.
He and Gilas would then proceed to Window 3 of the Asia Cup Qualifiers next week, where the Filipino dribblers are readying to face Chinese Taipei in Taipei and then New Zealand in Auckland in a highly-anticipated rematch.
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“I’ll definitely be playing there and then I’ll be heading to Doha Thursday morning, right after the game, to join Gilas,” he said.
Newsome knows how grueling it would be for him, but for now, his focus is just on Meralco and helping his team advance to the Final Four.
It will be easier said than done, with the Bolts looking to end a two-game skid in the EASL against a Kings side that’s riding a two-game winning streak entering the fixture set to tip off at 7:10 PM at the New Taipei Gymnasium.
But the crew is even hungrier to reach the semifinals, especially after missing out on the feat in the PBA after falling to Justin Brownlee and Ginebra in a best-of-3 quarterfinal series that went the distance.
“That’s something that will be great for the whole program, that’s something that will allow some of these guys to get a semifinals bonus even — something that we just missed out on here in the PBA. So we got another chance at that,” he said.
The winner between Meralco and New Taipei will join B.League teams Hiroshima and Ryukyu plus P. League+ outfit Taoyuan in the EASL Final Four, which is slated March 7-9 at the Studio City Events Center in Macau.
