MANILA – Calvin Abueva of Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots and Terrence Romeo of San Miguel Beermen have made their return to the Gilas Pilipinas for the 19th Asian Games slated later this month in Hangzhou, China.
The two were among the call-ups of Philippine men’s basketball team interim head coach Earl Timothy “Tim” Cone that attended the first day of training on Monday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
Abueva and Romeo were among the top guns of then-Gilas Pilipinas head coach Vincent “Chot” Reyes during the national men’s basketball team’s campaigns in the 2010s.
The two last donned the Gilas Pilipinas jersey during the infamous “basketbrawl” between the Philippine team and Australia during the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Since then, Filipino basketball fans have been clamoring for the return of Abueva and Romeo, but then-Gilas coaches Tab Baldwin and Reyes did not call them up.
Also called up by Cone were Filipino-Tongan center Moala Tautuaa of the Beermen, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Stanley Pringle, and Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters’ Jason Perkins.
Three members of the Gilas Pilipinas team in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Kings’ Japeth Aguilar and Earl Scottie Thompson and Beermen’s June Mar Fajardo, also attended the training session.
Completing the squad were World Cup team final cuts Chris Newsome and Calvin Oftana, and naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Angelo Kouame.
Roger Pogoy was present but was in street clothes and left the practice early, presumably to beg off, as reported by Tiebreaker Times.
Gilas will face Bahrain on the 26th, Thailand on the 28th, and Jordan on the 30th, with the top two teams in Group C advancing to the knockout playoffs./PN
