Gilas mulls tune-up with NBA stars following lockout

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Gilas Pilipinas’ plan of playing a couple of tune-up games against a star-studded NBA selection team could be in the offing after the NBA decided to lock out their players indefinitely after failing to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement.

The Nationals were supposed to use the two games as one of the alternatives to their cancelled trips to Lisbon, Portugal and Istanbul, Turkey in the couple of months as they prepare for the FIBA-Asia Championship slated Sept. 15-25 in Wuhan, China.

“We have some player problems because some of our PBA reinforcements are with their mother teams and some of those remaining are injured,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman, whose team was back in practice after taking a three-day off following its title romp at the ninth SEABA Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“So we’ve decided to skip the Turkey and Portugal trips entirely because we will have a few players to bring there.

“Maybe we’ll play an NBA selection team but I still don’t know the players who are coming yet,” he added.

There were reports that Smart Gilas is inviting a blockbuster cast headed by two-time scoring champion Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma Thunder, reigning MVP Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls and current slam dunk king and Rookie of the Year Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers to play a pair of games against the Nationals.

Sources said Smart Gilas is coordinating with former All-Star Chris Webber, who visited and played a game here last year, to bring in these stars should an NBA lockout occurs.

The same sources added that part of the package reportedly includes Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Mario Chalmers of the Miami Heat and Andrei Igoudala of the Philadelphia Sixers.

Meanwhile, Smart Gilas will face the Cebu Niños on July 6 and 7 at the Mandaue Gym and at the San Agustin Gym in Iloilo.

The European jousts were cancelled because Smart Gilas has only nine healthy players following a back injury by Marcio Lassiter and the unavailability of PBA players Asi Taulava of Meralco, Dondon Hontiveros of Air21 and Kelly Williams and Jimmy Alapag of Talk N’ Text.

The Filipinos are also missing the services of seven-footer Greg Slaughter and 6-6 Aldrech Ramos, who are currently playing for Ateneo and Far Eastern U, respectively, in the 74th UAAP season unfolding July 9.