Amateur basketball godfather Mikee Romero and SBP executive director Patrick Gregorio said Gabe Norwood is arriving in the next few days to join the Harbour Centre-RP team in its SEA Games campaign in Thailand this December.
“I’ve been in touch with his family in the US. I’ve just talked to his father Brian. To me, the only issues to be settled are his date of arrival and his clearance from his PBL mother team Hapee Toothpaste,” said Gregorio.
La Salle’s Rico Maierhofer and TY Tang are the other players being eyed to reinforce the team after San Beda decided to pull out Pong Escobal and Ogie Menor for academic reasons.
The services of Talk n Tex guard Egay Billones is being offered by no less than PLDT chairman and SBP president Manny Pangilinan. The coaching staff, meanwhile, wants to have another look at Ateneo’s Chris Tiu, who’s now on vacation in the US.
Romero said they have included Alex Crisano in the RP pool, which has left for training in Korea with the Fil-Am ace guaranteeing he can work on his documents in time for the SEAG.
“We badly need him. We lack height and heft. Just his tattoos could probably intimidate the opposition,” said Romero of Crisano, barred from playing in the PBA due to lack of papers to support his citizenship claim.
Joining Crisano in Korea are point guards Boyet Bautista and Eugene Tan, off-guards Jason Castro, Patrick Cabahug and Jonathan Fernandez,wingmen Allan Salangsang, Eric dela Cuesta and Jeff Chan, power forwards Jervy Cruz and Chad Alonzo and center Beau Belga.
“You see, we have only four frontliners. But that’s all we have. We just have to double our efforts,” said Romero. – Nelson Beltran