The first day of Gilas practice for the 2017 Southeast Asian Games featured a lot of new faces. During the team’s warm-up, Bobby Ray Parks, Jr. took center court, while Kevin Alas and Baser Amer performed stretches near the Meralco Gym’s logo.
On the far left though was Raymar Jose, remaining as low-key as ever.
From his days with the Far Eastern University to his run with the Kaohsiung Truth, until his current stint with the Cignal HD Hawkeyes, it was not his numbers that stood out, but the intangibles that he brought to the game. It is what brought him to the National Team pool, according to coach Chot Reyes.
“Raymar has always been [on]Â our radar. When we dropped AVO [Arnold Van Opstal], we needed another big guy so we’ve invited Raymar and he has willingly accepted,” Reyes shared.
And the 23-year-old undersized big man knows this, saying that it was his hard work both on and off the court that led him to this select group.
“Para sa akin sobrang saya ko kasi malaking opportunity ito para sa akin. Sobrang dami player tapos ako napili ni coach Chot,” expressed Jose, who played a game with the Hawkeyes earlier in the day. “Napakalaking blessing nito.
“Siguro hard work ko yung napansin nila kaya napili nila ako dito.”
But now that he has to juggle his duties with the National Team and Cignal, the son of Pontevedra, Negros Occidental is finally realizing one important thing: the value of rest.
“Medyo okay naman. Masaya kasi nakaka-dalawang practice ako sa isang araw kaya kailangan ko ng tamang balance ng rest at effort,” he shared. “Kailangan magpahinga rin.”
After going through the entire basketball circuit for the entirety of last year, finally Jose realizes that he needs to slow down sometimes.
