Boatwright agrees to Gilas naturalization
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MANILA – San Miguel Beermen i mport Bennie Boatwright has agreed to become one of the naturalized players for Gilas Pilipinas men’s basketball team.
Gilas head coach Tim Cone said the Samahang Basketbol Pilipinas (SBP) already had a deal with Boatwright and they are in the process of starting his naturalization.
“As far as I know, we have an agreement that he is already submitting papers to naturalize,” Cone said. “I was the one that asked for him (to be among Gilas’ naturalized players).”
“I think he’s a tremendous talent, he’s got great size and he can play in and out. He’s very versatile. Kinda reminds me of a young Justin [Brownlee], just like three or four inches taller so we’ll see,” he added.
Boatwright, who was part of the Beermen’s 2023–24 PBA Commissioner’s Cup champion team, averaged 30.31 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 3.46 assists per game.
Currently, th 6- foot- 10 forward is playing for the Shanxi Loongs in the Chinese Basketball Association where he averaged 16.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in seven games.
“He’s a young guy, and we have to get him into practice, into the system and everything else but it’s a long way away,” Cone said. “This could be a process, usually a long process, three, four, maybe eight months, we don’t know.”
Despite the impending naturalization of Boatwright, Brownlee will remain the primary option of Gilas head coach Tim Cone in the upcoming tournaments.
The 27-year-old Boatwright, however, will be serviceable for Gilas in the Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games, where the national team can field multiple naturalized players.
“Without a doubt, this
i s written i n stone right now, Justin’s our guy. He is gonna be his backup, just like Justin was a backup to Jordan Clarkson in the World Cup,” Cone said.
“We’re gonna go with that at the moment. He’s not even here yet, he’s not even naturalized yet. I think he’s in China at the moment, and I haven’t talked to him personally about it,” he added./