Gilas hoping FIBA clear Lassiter, Lutz

WUHAN – Smart Gilas Pilipinas was still hoping Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz would be allowed to play in the 26th FIBA Asia Championship with Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas officials exerting efforts to clarify things with both the FIBA Asia leaders here and the FIBA top brass based in Geneva, Switzerland.

SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan arrived here yesterday morning and was to meet with FIBA Asia deputy secretary general Hagop Khajirian before the Smart Gilas-China setto last night.

In Manila, SBP executive director Sonny Barrios and key staff were said to be communicating with FIBA secretary general Patrick Bauhmann.

Hours before the Smart Gilas-UAE match Thursday, Hagop ruled Lassiter and Lutz ineligible to play in this regional Olympic qualifier, citing a certain article in the FIBA by-laws.

Also hit by Hagop’s last-minute ruling were Qatar, Syria and Lebanon.

Reduced to a seven-man team, the Gulf champions Qataris lost their opening game against Middle Asia qualifier Uzbekistan by default.

Apparently in a gesture of protest, the Qatari players gave up all the fouls they could give in the first six minutes of the game. They lost the game by default with only one player left on the court.

Words here said Qatar would do the same versus Iran late last night and against Chinese Taipei today. They would then skip the classification plays.

SBP leaders, however, were confident misinterpretation of the rule would be corrected, and the two Fil-Am players would be cleared to play in the tourney.

Filipino officials thought Hagop was citing   Article 321 of FIBA rules pertaining naturalized players, and not natural-born citizens.

Lassiter and Lutz, who were both born to a Filipina mother and an American father, are considered natural-born Filipinos under the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Whether the two players are cleared or not, coach Rajko Toroman promised Smart Gilas would put up a fighting performance here.

Korea and Japan roared to second straight wins while Syria and Chinese Taipei broke into the win-column in their respective groups in earlier games yesterday.

Korea dumped Lebanon, 80-62; Japan trounced Jordan, 92-87; Syria smothered Indonesia, 74-61; and Chinese Taipei tripped Uzbekistan, 81-71.