PBA reinforcements eyed for Philippine 3x3 team

MANILA,Philippines — The Philippine 3x3 team is mulling to tap a player or two from the Philippine Basketball Association in an effort to boost its campaign in next year’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in New Delhi, India.

“We’re still clarifying some FIBA rules regarding the composition of the team,” said Eric Altamirano, the program director and Chooks-to-Go 3x3 league commissioner. “As soon as we do so, we are not discounting the possibility of getting players outside of our league, including the PBA.”

Since it requires OQT participants to field in at least two players who are FIBA-ranked, Altamirano named Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol as shoo-ins to the team that is seeking to finish in the top three to make it to next year’s Tokyo Games.

Munzon is the highest ranked Filipino in the FIBA 3x3 rankings with 475,860 points while Pasaol is at second with 420,860.

“Obviously, we need to have the top 10 players in the country, especially the top two. Joshua (Munzon) and Alvin (Pasaol) are most likely going to be part of the team,” said Altamirano.

The other players in the pool are Santi Santillan, Karl Dehesa, Troy Rike, Dylan Ababou, Chris de Chavez, Franky Johnson, Roosevelt Adams, and Leo de Vera.

After a vigorous campaign the whole year, the Philippines made it to the 20-team OQT as FIBA announced in a ceremony in Utsunomiya, Japan Friday.

The Philippines is bracketed in Pool C with Slovenia, France, Qatar and Dominican Republic.

Mongolia, Poland, Brazil, Turkey and Spain are in Pool A, United States, Lithuania, Belgium, South Korea and New Zealand in Pool B and the Netherlands, Latvia, Canada, Croatia and India in Pool D.

“Compared to the other groups, which are strong, I think its doable in our group,” said Altamirano. “But don’t get me wrong, I think it is still going to be tough and we still need to work harder to achieve our Olympic goal.”