Presented by the Basketball Association of the Philippines with the Philippine Basketball Association as project director, the game set at 7 p.m. at the Araneta Coliseum will be the first for the Asiad squads of the two countries since Tim Cone’s Centennial Team beat the Taiwanese in the memorable title game for the 1998 William Jones Cup in Taipei.
If the seedings hold in Busan, the next time these two countries meet after this goodwill series will be in the quarterfinals of the Asiad, where the Philippines and Taipei are expected to join overwhelming favorite China in one bracket.
"This will go a long way in our preparations," said Selecta-RP coach Jong Uichico after wrapping up a light workout for the team yesterday. "This will give us a fairly good idea on where we are compared to the other teams in the region."
Still, the two teams that will meet tonight at the Big Dome and again on Thursday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo will only be remotely connected to the Philippine and Taipei squads that disputed the Jones Cup four years ago.
Co-skippers Kenneth Duremdes and Olsen Racela, Andy Seigle, forward Dennis Espino and Jeffrey Cariaso are the only holdovers from Cone’s Centennial Team that eventually won the bronze in the Bangkok Asiad four years ago.
From that Taiwanese team four years ago, only 6-foot-8 center Chih Wei Wu remains. Gone, too, is the prolific and exciting Cheng Chih Lung, the high-flying, streak shooting forward who earned the named "American Ninja" because of his acrobatic style.
Meanwhile, fans can avail themselves of Upper B and General Admission tickets for only P5 by bringing proofs of purchase of member PBA teams Alaska, Ginebra, Coca-Cola, FedEx, Purefoods, Red Bull, San Miguel, Sta. Lucia, Shell and Talk ‘N Text, as well as PBA partners Samsung and Selecta.
Fans wearing official PBA Properties items can also avail of the promo.
The Philippines will be parading its tallest team ever assembled as a horde of Fil-foreigners, including man-mountain Asi Taulava, have been picked by Uichico for the Games.