Four foreign teams beef up NBL cast

Four tough foreign teams will see action when the National Basketball League stages the 2003 BAP-NBL National Open championship on Sept. 10-17 in Cebu City.

These are the national teams of Qatar, Jordan, Chinese-Taipei and Satria Muda Britama, runner-up in the recent Indonesian Basketball League.

The other contenders are the Cebuana Lhuillier RP team, the NBL All-Stars North and the NBL All-Stars South.

NBL secretary-general Tito Palma has also invited coach Eric Altamirano’s San Miguel All-Stars composed of former professional stars to complete the cast.

"This is our humble contribution to the development of basketball here," said Palma, who also thanked the BAP for making the event possible.

The tourney is expected to help coach Aric del Rosario’s national cagers prepare for the ABC men’s championship and the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam this December.

Qatar will be led by 6-foot-8 Yaseen Ismail Mahmoud, who was called "The Dunker from Doha" when he powered his team to the 2002 ABC Champions Cup in Malaysia.

Jordan will parade 6-9 center-forward Zaid Alkhas while Chinese-Taipei will be led by 6-8 guard Tien Lei, 6-11 center Wu Dai Ho and television star Yen Hsing Su of "My MVP Valentine" fame.

NBL North will be jointly handled by Pampanga’s Alan Trinidad and Taguig’s Danny Gavierrez while NBL South will be mentored by M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala’s Raul Alcoseba. <