MANILA, Philippines - Smart Gilas Pilipinas coach Rajko Toroman hailed the Ultimate All-Star Weekend as a huge success as, for one, it gave his team the opportunity to gauge its preparation for the coming Fiba Asia Championship.
The blockbuster event exposed the Nationals to a high-level of basketball competition, and Toroman insisted he liked what his team showed.
The Nationals refused to be awed by the NBA stars, playing their usual game and sticking close in an 89-98 loss.
It was the first time that Smart Gilas came out and played with its full lineup, and the Nationals certainly showed promise that they can be competitive against anybody in the Asian joust in Wuhan, China in September.
“Anybody saw today that the team has a good potential,” said Toroman.
The Nationals drew respect and admiration not only from the crowd but also from the NBA stars.
“They ran good plays and they executed well,” said five-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant.
There was a larger amount of competition in the second game of the two-game series with the Nationals making the most of it to help them in their buildup for the Wuhan meet.
“We didn’t respect them on the floor. We showed our respect after the game,” said Toroman, proud of the decent stand put up by his players.
It was a far more serious game compared to the showdown between the NBA stars and the PBA selection that was more of a show time.
“It think we need eight to nine more games for the Fiba Asia Championship. We’re playing about the same number of games in the Jones Cup but we still don’t have the Talk n Text players (Jimmy Alapag, Kelly Williams and Ranidel de Ocampo) then,” said Toroman.
De Ocampo, the latest addition to the team, suited up for the first time with the Nationals but was not used as he’s still nursing a broken nose.
“We committed many turnovers at the start before we settled down. I think we played pretty well overall,” said Toroman.