MANILA, Philippines -- Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone said CJ Perez will be unable to join the national team to China for the Asian Games after the guard flew overseas following the recently concluded FIBA World Cup.
Perez was part of the Gilas 12 for the World Cup, but he played sparingly.
Cone said that they tried to contact Perez as they were assembling the team for the Asiad, but he already went abroad.
“We didn’t have a lot of direction when the World Cup ended. So immediately after the World Cup, there was no sense of ‘we’re gonna be back, we’re gonna be doing this.’ So [Perez] ended up going overseas,” the new national team coach told reporters Wednesday.
“He still wants to play, but he’s gonna miss too much practice time. So we just made the decision to move on from him and we miss him. We really wanted him on the team but by the time he was located and told to come to practice, he was already overseas,” he added.
Cone added that Perez will be returning to the Philippines to train by September 18 or 19, a few days before the team flies off to China.
“He moved on, we moved on, but yes, we’re gonna miss him because he’s capable and I think he would kill in our system, the way we play so I think he would have been really good,” the coach reiterated.
This is why the team took Perez’s teammate in San Miguel, Terrence Romeo, another spitfire guard who can get the ball in the basket.
“It just happened that way. Kinda out of our control.”
For now, 10 players are sure to get in the team: June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, RR Pogoy, Mo Tautuaa, Calvin Oftana, Chris Newsome, Romeo and naturalized players Ange Kouame and Justin Brownlee.
Ginebra guard Stanley Pringle is standing in as an alternate.
Two players, Calvin Abueva and Jason Perkins, are still being petitioned by Gilas to be included in the final roster as they were not initially part of the 60-player list submitted for the Asiad.