Gilas taps 6-foot-10 Serbian as import

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Gilas Pilipinas has decided to bring in Serbian Milan Vucicevic as its import when it competes in the 21st FIBA-Asia Champions Cup slated May 22-30 in Doha, Qatar.

RP team manager Frankie Lim and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Noli Eala yesterday confirmed the 25-year-old, 6’10” Vucicevic is expected to arrive tomorrow from Serbia to join the Nationals’ during their workout.

Smart Gilas’ Serbian coach Rajko Toroman recommended that Vucicevic be the Filipinos’ temporary reinforcement should they fail to sign up a naturalization player candidate in time for the nine-day Doha joust.

Vucicevic, who will turn 26 on July 20, last played for a club team in Doha that saw action in the Emir Cup and, before that, for Shiraz a.s. Pipe in the Iranian league.

The Serbian’s other international stints were in Cyprus, Oman, Ukraine, Greece and Poland.

There are reports that Vucicevic performance in the Champions Cup may be used as a yardstick by the SBP whether to sign him up for the team’s naturalized player.

“We’ll see,” said Eala.

Jared Reiner, a former University of Iowa standout who suited up briefly for Chicago Bulls, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers, was the recent foreign player Smart Gilas eyed but the plan didn’t push through since he never showed up in its Las Vegas stint.

The Nationals recently arrived from their training trip in United States where they played several American Basketball Association clubs.

Toroman earlier said the team will play All-Filipino in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games this November if they couldn’t enlist a naturalized player in time for the event.

“We’ll play All-Filipino in Guangzhou if we don’t find an import,” said Toroman, who steered the Iranians to the 2007 FIBA-Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan and the 2008 Beijing Olympics before accepting the RP coaching job.

 Smart Gilas has already secured the commitment of talented former Marshall U Fil-Am standout Chris Lutz to play for flag and country and is set to acquire another Fil-Am Chris Banchero, who had 22 points, six rebounds and four assists in one of RP’s tune-up games in Las Vegas.

Smart Gilas is also close to getting former PBA MVP Kelly Williams from Sta. Lucia as a possible trade involving the Realtors and the Talk N’ Text Tropang Texters.

And it is counting on seven-foot Greg Slaughter’s who had improved tremendouisly in recent months.

“Since the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup in Jakarta last year when we finished fifth, Greg has improved a lot. He’s now our first option at center position,” said Toroman.

“If we don’t find an import, we’ll be ready with Greg,” he added.