Tim Cone will have his hands full after the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup concludes.
Instead of preparing just one Gilas Pilipinas Men’s team for the national team window, he will be managing two separate pools.
The FIBA World Cup 2027 Qualifiers will feature two windows during that stretch, with the first round closer set from June 29 to July 7, and the second round opener from August 24 to September 1.
Meanwhile, the men’s basketball tournament of the 20th Asian Games will begin on September 10, with the medal rounds scheduled on September 20 in Aichi.
It remains unclear whether Asian Games organizers will fully adopt FIBA eligibility rules or implement their own guidelines for team rosters.
Because of this uncertainty, Cone and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas are preparing two separate Gilas pools — one for the World Cup Qualifiers and another for the Asian Games.
For the Asiad, players such as Converge’s Justin Arana and San Juan’s Mike Phillips are being considered.
“So we put a long list together, and it’s a list of about 30 names. Arana is a part of that list, obviously,” Cone said after Ginebra’s 93-86 win over TNT on Sunday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. “A lot of other players are on that list, and Mike Phillips is on that list, but this has nothing to do with the windows at this point.
“We haven’t really added anything to the windows, so this is just strictly for the Asian Games. Simple as that. But obviously, they’re under consideration for the Asian Games being in the long list.”
The expanded pool reflects lessons learned by the federation following the 2023 Asian Games.
It can be recalled that the 60-man list for the Hangzhou Games included several unexpected names, such as Jordan’s naturalized player Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Jordan Clarkson, Andray Blatche, Remy Martin, Mikey Williams, and, even, American Onyeka Okongwu.
Despite limited preparation and a largely makeshift roster, Gilas Men still went on to capture the gold medal in the continental meet.
This time, Cone and the federation are ensuring they are better prepared for whatever eligibility rules the organizers may impose.
“We don’t know all the eligibility rules that are going to happen. Last year, our last Asian Games, we had a long list put together, and there were a lot of players on there that didn’t get eligible. It was a long list, and at the last Asian Games, we scrambled for players at the very end because the list wasn’t representative of what the eligibility rules were,” he said.
“So we made a long list, hoping that there are certain eligibilities. These guys for sure will be eligible, and we’ll have a bigger pool to pick from. They may eliminate Fil-Ams or naturalized players. You just don’t know. You saw what happened in the Southeast Asian Games, too. So we had to make a long list. That’s why all those guys are on it.”
