MARC PINGRIS made a drastic U-turn on his earlier decision not to join Gilas Pilipinas this year.

Great news. This basketball-crazed nation is elated.

But why the sudden change of heart?

Why after four days after he had told national coach Tab Baldwin that he was “going to concentrate on Star’s preparations for the PBA (which doesn’t open until Oct. 18)?”

The rumor mill is abuzz once again, especially after Pingris was quoted as saying by several reporters that “I love Gilas, but there are things that are beyond my control.”

Was it the quote that made him reconsider his earlier decision, as it was so vague and controversial that people did nothing but read between the lines and come up with their own conclusions that made a lot of people look bad in the process?

Well, that statement by Pingris will be talked about in the months to come, whatever happens, be it if he makes the final 12 or not, or with whatever result Gilas manages to pound out in the Fiba-Asia Olympic qualifier late next month.

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As a refresher, Pingris went to a Gilas practice Saturday last week and bid the team an emotional farewell, even embracing national coach Tab Baldwin after he was given the honor of ending practice by shouting the team’s famous battlecry of “Puso!”

The mood that day was indeed somber, gloomy, to say the least, as it was widely known that the 6-foot-5 Star Hotshots power forward really wants to play for the National team.

Reporters swarmed all around him after that, and after giving that “it is beyond my control statement,” proceeded to talk further on the condition that everything was kept off the record from there.

Just like the ordinary basketball fan, reporters who have been covering the beat for so long know exactly what is happening.

Pingris looked like the proverbial bad guy after that statement, most especially since he was a vital element of the Gilas Pilipinas squad that squirmed its way back to the World Cup for the first time in almost 40 years.

Doing some investigation, Arabnews got to talk to one player whose name has been mentioned a lot of times in the past two weeks as a great candidate for a slot in the roster but was forced to beg off because his mother team won’t allow him to play.

“Ping (Pingris) told me that his manager made him say that beyond my control line,” the player, who we will keep in anonymity, said. “From what I heard, Star management, those who are really up there (in the management ladder) is really mad at him (Pingris) for coming up with that statement.”

On Wednesday afternoon, San Miguel Corp., the umbrella company which owns three PBA teams and some of the finest players not only in the PBA but in Asia, came up with an official press release saying that it was Pingris himself who reconsidered his decision.

The press release even said that “management does not stand in the way of any of our players who want to serve the national team,” or something to that effect.

Reading statements like that and hearing some players talk otherwise is really making all of this Gilas mess confusing.

And that, it’s sad to note, is what the current state of national basketball is in the country.

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That latest development is certainly welcome news for Gilas, as it could use an extra pair of legs, more so after Kelly Williams got injured barely five minutes into training camp two weeks ago.

But the bigger question now is: Will June Mar Fajardo and LA Tenorio, two more Gilas mainstays belonging to San Miguel Corp.-owned teams, follow suit?

I really hope so, because this corner believes that if June Mar suits up, the Filipinos will be very hard to beat in Changsha, China, the site of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic qualifier.

With Andray Blatche there at power forward and Asi Taulava at center, Baldwin will be very flexible in using Fajardo, whose game is at its peak at this stage in his career as evidenced by a second straight PBA MVP he won recently.

But Fajardo coming back is wishful thinking at this point.

If Fajardo is really injured, or if he is not and somebody or an entity is forbidding him from joining the National team, the 6-foot-10 center and his advisers handled his case right by saying that he is injured — albeit in a non-career threatening way — that will hobble him for the next few months.

Tenorio, meanwhile, said that he is fatigued and had played poorly in the last PBA season that he wants to beg off and give the others a chance.

Fine, that’s a patriotic act, because he is not aspiring for a slot in the team that he does not deserve — if we would look at his past season with Barangay Ginebra.

But I say: Will LA not be able to regain good form while practicing with Gilas? Will the decision of not including him in the Final 12 not fall on Baldwin who could have a use for a player that, even if he is not 100%, can be utilized in specific ways in international competition?

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The player that Arabnews was able to talk to really opened up, saying that he is very envious of his peers that are in the national team and will be gunning for an Olympic berth.

But this guy — who was a part of Gilas 2.0 that won the Jones Cup, placed second to Iran at the Fiba-Asia Manila in 2013 and was in Seville, Spain in the World Cup last year, knows that his mother team holds his career by the throat.

“I don’t want to be traded away by upsetting the bosses (of my mother PBA team). Politics have reared its ugly head in this case, and it is us players who are looking bad in the eyes of our fellow Filipinos.”

“I have stopped reading the papers since the time it (Gilas pool) was formed, because I was made to announce a decision I didn’t like making,” he went on. “But that is the life of a PBA player these days.”

See what I mean. It’s really confusing.

And it’s the country that will suffer ultimately.