WHILE Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone will be busy handling practically two sets of national squads for the two huge international tournaments within the next few weeks, the American believes his job is to simply come up with the “best players” who could compete and accomplish what they intend to accomplish.
Cone’s schedule will surely be loaded right after Friday, August 14, as the PBA takes a long, two-month break to give way for Gilas’ preparations and competitions in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers round 2, as well as the coming Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan set to start on Sept. 11.
For Cone, it’s a good thing that Gilas won’t be going anywhere this month since the Philippines will be hosting West Asian powerhouse teams Jordan on August 28, followed by many-time Asian men’s basketball champion Iran two days after.
Both games will be played at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“What’s really important also for country is the (FIBA (window) because (if we lose), then we can’t make the World Cup, and then I obviously haven’t done my job and the program will most likely have to move on,” Cone said in a recent interview with the Power and Play sports program of former PBA commissioner Noli Eala.
Gilas is dealing with a four-game losing skid after dropping its home and road games against former Oceania powerhouse teams New Zealand and Australia.
The Philippines’ only pair of wins at the end of the three-window, opening round of the Asian Qualifiers were the home and road wins against lowly Guam.
Justin Brownlee has been recovering from his multiple knee, leg and hamstring injuries, which prevented him from playing for Gilas in the national squad’s 92-49 shellacking at the hands of Australia in Perth early last July.
The all-time PBA winningest coach said he remains hopeful that young big man Kai Sotto can still play for the national team, mentioning the 7-3 son of former PBA player Ervin Sotto as a “game changer.”
“Kai is a question (mark). We haven’t heard from him yet, but we hope to hear from him sooner than later. The door is still open for him to join us,” Cone said, who has two weeks at least, of preparation before going up against Jordan, which shared a 5-1 record with Iran in Group C at the end of the first round.
“The word we got is his schedule is gonna get busy on August because he has something going on in the US in terms of joining a team,” he said. “We’re not exactly clear with where Kai is, but the door will always be open, he’s an absolute game changer.”
