MANILA, Philippines – After a two-week training and team bonding in Lithuania, coach Chot Reyes now looks forward to getting Gilas Pilipinas familiarized with the Mall of Asia Arena, which is the main venue of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in August.
Reyes wants the Nationals to be familiar with the feel of the MOA Arena hard court, the board and the rim – one of the leverages Gilas Pilipinas has got as host team of the coming World Cup qualifier.
He said their priority now is to book practices at the Pasay City playing venue after flying back from Lithuania Tuesday noon.
“Since we started practicing, we’ve been there just once because it’s fully booked,†said Reyes.
Knowing MOA Arena will continue to be fully booked especially with the start of the collegiate basketball season, Reyes said they’re open to holding practice there as early as 6 a.m. or as late as 10 p.m.
And they want to sweat it out at the MOA as many as possible between now and the FIBA Asia Championship proper on Aug. 1-11.
Before leaving for Lithuania, Gilas held most of its practice sessions at The Arena in San Juan.
Other games in the Asian meet will be held at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila. But as the host team, Gilas Pilipinas plays all its games at the MOA Arena.
Thus, Reyes wants his players to be acquainted with everything in the venue from its parking lot, to the dugouts, to the lightings and to the bounces of the ball in every single space of the floor.
The Philippines ruled the tourney the first two times it was held in the country in 1960 and in 1973. China won it four times as a host and Japan reigned supreme playing at home front in Tokyo in 1971.
No other Asian teams have set foot at MOA Arena except for two Chinese national players who were with the Shanghai Sharks that played Gilas in a friendly a few months back.
Meanwhile, an online report from Beirut said Lebanon has worked things out allowing 7-foot-2 Loren Woods to be the Lebanon team’s naturalized player in the Asian joust.
Before this, Lebanon coach Ghassan Sarkis said he would quit his job if Woods, a six-year NBA veteran with stints with Minnesota, Miami and Toronto, is not naturalized.
“We are already late in practice, and yet we haven’t solved any of the issues. I have asked the federation for almost five months to start the process of naturalizing Woods and nothing has happened yet,†Sarkis said.
But the Lebanon cage federation, Woods and his mother club Al Riyadi Beirut have reached a pact.
Lebanon has become a major force in Asian basketball since it started using naturalized players in 2001. The West Asian top bet had three second-place finishes with Joseph Vogel and a fourth-place windup with Jackson Vroman.
Woods is familiar with Asian basketball, having played with Iran’s team Mahram in the 2010 FIBA Asia Champions Cup in Doha, Qatar, then with Al Riyadi Beirut in the next Champions Cup at the Philsports Arena in 2012. He powered his teams to championships in both occasions.