Latest... Gilas Pilipinas in trouble

PARDON ME for taking a much-needed break, this corner needed to recharge somewhat after a nine-month grind covering the PBA beat.
Even while doing practically everything but write for more than two weeks, reporters like me still get some inside information regarding this and that player, this and that team, this and that PBA official, and what have you.
It is just by design that we ignore them sometimes, feeling that what we hear has no basis.
But not this one.
Gilas Pilipinas is in trouble.
That’s the latest.
And this is gloomy news indeed.
After experiencing highs in finishing second to Iran in the Fiba-Asia Championship in Manila in 2013, getting back to the World Cup the following year in Seville, Spain, and notching a first victory in more than 40 years, our national team that will be shooting for an Olympic berth will not be the best that we can assemble.
Tab Baldwin, the naturalized American who was tapped earlier this year to replace Chot Reyes as our national coach, will not have the entire roster of PBA players at his disposal for inclusion to Gilas 3.0.
Two-time MVP June Mar Fajardo has practically begged off because of plantar faciaitis in his foot, Marc Pingris said that he won’t be available until Aug. 13 or so because of a commitment to his father in France, LA Tenorio has cited fatigue, Marcio Lassiter is in the United States to attend to his ailing mother and big men Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar have also given different reasons.
Andre Blatche has also been rumored to be tied up with his contract in China in its professional league that will not give him his release to return to play for the Philippines.
Blatche, who inked a $7.5 million contract with a team in the CBA, is the biggest reason why the Philippines is hoping to make the Olympic roster again.
Paul Lee, arguably the best point guard in the PBA, and Jeff Chan, the streak-shooting veteran of several international wars, are also reportedly set to beg off because of different reasons.
I’m not saying that the players we mentioned are shoo-ins for spot in the team, but can you imagine a Philippine team without Fajardo, without Lee, without Slaughter?
We’ll be in a puddle of mud come the Fiba-Asia Championship in September in China where only one continental berth will be up for grabs for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
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From what we have heard, Baldwin is set to name 26 members of the new national pool on Monday, and will call for his first practice before the end of next week.
At the rate things are going, it seems that Baldwin is set to name just 16, and all of those who have begged off are, simply put, some of the best in their positions in the PBA.
Fajardo is, hands-down, the best big man in the PBA today. The way he dominated the entire season, doing it in conferences both all-Filipino and with imports makes him a no-brainer for inclusion to the team.
If Fajardo is in the squad playing power forward, Slaughter at center and Blatche at shooting forward, wouldn’t that make for one of the most feared frontlines in Asia?
Throw in Lee at the point and Jason Castro at the off-guard spot then the Philippines has a solid inside-outside team that could be the envy of the entire region.
But, sadly, we won’t have that.
Fajardo dominated the way he did even with that injury, and it makes me wonder why he suddenly cited that now that national calling is here.
Aside from Lee and Chan, there is one common denominator in the players that have reportedly begged off.
Such a sad, sad thing.
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While I have been in my extended break from writing, watching clips on youtube was one of the things I did to while away the time.
There is this great feature of the NBA about the batch of the 1984 Draft, where Hakeem Olajuwon was chosen first overall, followed by Sam Bowie and then Michael Jordan.
Charles Barkley was picked fifth overall and John Stockton 16th.
Except for Bowie, who had an injury-riddled career, those players we mentioned eventually made it to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, making the experts say that the Batch of ’84 was the best ever in the history of the NBA.
I agree.
The feature film also made mention of several others who were in that draft, including Rick Carlisle, who went on to become a champion coach with Dallas, and the last pick of that Draft who perished in the World Trade Center attack after becoming a legend in Ireland.
And then there was thing one very interesting portion of the program that dwelled on Oscar Schmidt, yes, that Brazilian deadshot who never got to play in the NBA because he chose country more than anything else in the world.
Schmidt, according to that feature film, is the all-time leading scorer in basketball history, shooting over 10,000 more points that what Kareem Adbu-Jabbar tossed in while playing in the NBA.
There is no other international player who is greater than Schmidt, who said in the film that he chose not to play for the New Jersey Nets despite a guaranteed contract because playing in the NBA wouldn’t allow him to play internationally for Brazil anymore.
Eyebrows were raised after that, but Schmidt silenced all of his critics when he led Brazil to an upset victory over the United States in the Pan-American Games in the late 1980s, an upset that until now stands as one of the biggest in the history of the sport.
Why can’t our players do the same, to forsake everything else just to play for flag and country?
I just wish that Schmidt had been Filipino, in that way, his example would have been followed by players of this generation.