Los Angeles Lakers’ Filipino-American player Jordan Clarkson will not be playing for the Gilas Pilipinas for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, July this year.
According to a report in the official website of Gilas Pilipinas, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) said that the FIBA let them choose between Jordan Clarkson and Andray Blatche to play for the Philippine National Basketball Team in the Olympic qualifiers.
“When I was in Geneva last March, we talked about Jordan Clarkson again and I was told to choose between him and Andray Blatche,” said SBP President Manny V. Pangilinan as quoted in the article.
“The decision is to get Blatche back. We’re only talking about the FIBA OQT… I think the safer choice is Blatche,” he added.
The SBP says that they will be having a really hard time in having Clarkson in the team. Another angle that’s been considered is that Andray is already a naturalized player and already played with Gilas Pilipinas before.
They also said that it would be a complicated and long process to acquire the services of Clarkson because, according to MVP, they would need to go to different groups.
Jordan Clarkson is regular and active player in the NBA playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Being a player like him, it would be a great opportunity for Philippine National basketball team to have him. His experiences, skills, and knowledge of the sport can even give the Philippines a brighter chance to go to Rio 2016.
What can you say about not having Clarkson’s in the Gilas Pilipinas pool of players?
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Source: SmartGilasBasketball