Right after new SBP President Al Panlilio assumed his post Monday afternoon at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City, he immediately bared the plans for a new iteration for the men’s national basketball team, or Gilas 5.0.
Tiebreaker Times first broke the news that the Philippine Basketball Association and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas have been in talks over holding a separate draft for the players that have been invited for the national team. The 52-year-old SBP president confirmed this, saying, “we’ve agreed with this with the PBA and we’re looking at 14 name to create that pool.”
READ MORE: The process continues for Gilas Pilipinas
“In fact, the discussion with the PBA was for them to have a special draft with the PBA, but with all the teams owning the rights to the players but knowing that those players are committed to the national team until such time the SBP releases them to the PBA.
“At least, they already have mother teams,” he said.
“We’re working on that. But most probably, most of those names will be part of Gilas 5.0. Of course, may kanya-kanyang commitment sila, but that’s the task of Butch, to talk to them and make them part of the pool,” he furthered.
The agreement between the league and the NSA have yet to be fully polished between the two sides. However, the general idea is for the Cadetsbe fully committed to the national team before entering the professional ranks.
“The agreement lang is for them to be drafted, a special draft for the Gilas players but PBA teams will have the rights to them,” the SBP emphasized.
“But they will not play in the PBA until the SBP releases them to the PBA. That has been sort of agreed on in the PBA.”
“Di siya regular draft,” he said. “The agreement is there will be a special draft for Gilas players and all the teams will pick one, following the merit order of the draft of the PBA, and after that, it goes to the regular draft.”
According to Panlilio, some of the league’s team owners, like Fred Uytengsu of Alaska, have expressed their support to the proposal.
“Fred said that and I think it was seconded by Phoenix and other teams in the PBA because you also don’t want to kill the PBA at the same time because the pipeline from the PBA are coming from the college ranks and we’re also part of the PBA,” he shared.
“We want to make sure that the PBA survives and in fact, becomes a bigger league than it is today and at the same time, looking at how we can also improve the national team. It’s a two-pronged objective for the PBA.
“They’re really willing to help the SBP, strengthening the national team, and they’ve shown that and they will continue to do really support that,” he concluded.
