Kiefer Ravena and his teammates will “kill for our spots” in the Gilas Pilipinas squad that will campaign in the FIBA Basketball World Cup that the country will host from 25 August to 10 September.
Ravena, the newly-designated team captain, said they have already switched their level of training to a higher gear with less that a month left before the prestigious 32-nation tourney.
In fact, he called a huddle to remind his teammates about the challenges they are facing and the enormity of the task of making the country proud in its hosting of the World Cup.
“I just gave some reminders because we’re the ones who are going to kill each other in our practices to earn spots, so as to help one another whoever makes it to the World Cup,” Ravena, who was part of the team that campaigned in the previous staging of the World Cup in China in 2019.
Despite being hounded by various issues like injuries, player availability and fatigue, Ravena and the rest of Gilas are not in the mood to make excuses.
Naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame won’t make it to China due to various reasons.
Brownlee is scheduled to remove bone spurs on his foot on Wednesday, a surgery that requires four to six weeks of recovery.
He, however, will be ready when Gilas compete in the 19th Asian Games that will be held in Hangzhou, China from 23 September to 8 October.
The 6-foot-10 Kouame, on the other hand, is currently being loaned to Rain or Shine, which will serve as the representative of the Philippine Basketball Association in the William Jones Cup starting 12 August in Taipei.
Gilas’ other naturalized player in National Basketball Association campaigner Jordan Clarkson, for his part, is doubtful to see action in the tournament in China against Senegal, Iran and Lebanon as he is set to hook up with the Filipinos on 6 August.
Other players who will be unavailable for the China encounter are injured stars Scottie Thompson and Kai Sotto.
Thompson fractured his right ring finger during their training in Lithuania while Sotto is still undergoing rehabilitation to treat his back injury that he sustained in his final game in the National Basketball Association Summer League.
The 7-foot-3 Sotto, however, showed up in Gilas’ last day of training before leaving for China.
Ravena believes that everybody has to work collectively in making themselves mentally and physically ready for the biggest basketball spectacle in the world.
“The World Cup is about to come, so we have to extra focused,” Ravena said.
“We have to prepare, more mentally, consider the journey we went through and the journey that we’re going to encounter in the days to come.”
