MVP inspires winning culture
JAKARTA – SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan spoke about the importance of creating a winning culture in an informal gathering with the Gilas team at the Fairmont Hotel during the FIBA Asia Cup here. He noted the critical timetable of making inroads in the runway leading to the FIBA World Cup in August next year.
MVP was joined by SBP president Al Panlilio, PBA chairman Ricky Vargas, SBP vice chairman Cong. Robbie Puno and SBP executive director Sonny Barrios in the gettogether. Thirdy Ravena expressed gratitude for MVP’s support and encouragement in the team’s behalf.
“We hosted the FIBA secretary-general (Andreas Zagklis) last week and one of the things he told us was it would be good for Gilas to start winning in the runup to the World Cup,” said MVP. “It’s not so much the windows although they’re very important but other non-FIBA competitions like the SEA Games. As a host, automatic ang participation natin sa World Cup so effectively, we have a place on the table but at the same time, we’re going to spend a lot of money with respect to hosting expenses na hindi biro ‘yan so we have to start winning more games. I know there are issues of player availability with windows in August, November and February, especially in November tatamaan our UAAP players Carl (Tamayo) and Kevin (Quiambao). We have to make do whatever it is that (coach) Chot (Reyes) can work out.”
Panlilio said the attitude of winning must start now. “We want to start strong every game and sustain it for 40 minutes, playing with energy as it’s the only way we can win,” he said. “We want to play hard and it requires effort from everyone on the team.” A key step in the journey towards the World Cup is regaining the SEA Games men’s basketball gold medal in Phnom Penh on May 5-16.
Since taking over the Gilas helm last February, Reyes has led the national team to a 2-2 record in the FIBA World Cup Asia qualifiers. The wins were over India and the losses were to New Zealand. The coming three qualifying windows will pit the Philippines against Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Reyes said in the next window, the difficulty is assembling a competitive unit against Lebanon in Beirut on Aug. 25 and Saudi Arabia at home on Aug. 29. An option is to reinforce the squad with players from eliminated teams in the PBA Philippine Cup where the finals are tentatively slated to begin on Aug. 21. Another option is to send one intact PBA team not playing in the finals. The hope is Jordan Clarkson may be available for this window since it will be during the NBA offseason.