No Governors Cup stint as Gilas bound for FIBA Asia Cup instead

MANILA, Philippines – The PBA thumbed down the proposed participation of Gilas Pilipinas in the season-ending Governors' Cup but vowed to compress the schedule further to give way for a FIBA Asia Cup stint in July.

The league board agreed on Thursday to finish the third conference in time for Gilas to fly to Wuhan, China, for the FIBA Asia Cup from July 11 to 19.

The league has already adjusted its calendar to give Gilas more time to prepare for the FIBA World Cup in Spain in August and the Asian Games in September.

“We’re continuing to explore ways of further compressing our third conference in view of allowing our Gilas team to participate in the FIBA tourney in July,” PBA commissioner Chito Salud told reporters after the league's board meeting on Thursday.

Salud added that they are looking at only three-day break in between the Commissioner's Cup and the next conference to be able to finish by July 9.

The new agreement, however, is still subject to change and everything will be finalized on April 10 as the board convenes again for a special meeting to evaluate the applications of the three applicants for league expansion.

The league will still have to check logistics particularly scheduling, playing venues, and whether all games will be shown live by partner coveror TV5.