After dropping their first three matches, Gilas Pilipinas turns its attention to qualifying for the Paris Olympics when it sees action in the classification phase of the FIBA Basketball World Cup starting Thursday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Gilas have yet to determine its opponent as members of Group B in China, South Sudan, Serbia and Puerto Rico have yet to settle their final standings in the preliminaries of this 32-nation tournament.
But whoever they will face, expect the Filipinos to go hard in a bid to become the top-performing Asian team that will be granted an automatic spot in the Paris Olympics.
The last time the Philippines advanced to the Olympics was in 1972 in Munich with legends like Adriano Papa, Danny Florencio, Bogs Adornado, Manny Paner, Freddie Webb, Jimmy Mariano and Rosalio Martirez at the helm.
Now, they have a golden chance should they sweep their last three matches and pray that other Asian countries like Japan, China, Jordan, Iran, and Lebanon win struggle in the classification phase.
Gilas naturalized player Jordan Clarkson said they are determined to sweep their next three matches, starting with their Group B opponent in either South Sudan or China.
“We’re super motivated. From the beginning, we were really motivated. Our team is strong, we fight, and don’t give up throughout the whole game. Basketball is a game of missed shots and ups and downs. What happened was we stringing together runs,” said Clarkson shortly after absorbing an 83-90 loss to Italy in their Group A preliminaries.
“We go out there, compete and fight to the end of the horn. We didn’t really feel we’ve been out of any games. We’re strong mentally and we just have to put it together and try to get these two. We know what it means for the country and we’ll leave it all out on the floor.”
Clarkson knows exactly what to expect in the classification stage.
“South Sudan, physical, athletic team. I’ve watched them play a few games. I know Luol Deng and how he was able to put that program together. They have a young player named (Wenyen) Gabriel over there. He’s athletic, runs the floor well,” Clarkson, who plays for the Utah Jazz in the National Basketball Association, said.
“China as well, very familiar with that team. Kyle Anderson joined them as well. Their big guys. Two really good teams. We need to come out together, compete and win. That’s all we want to do. We don’t want to come out here and try to lose. But we know these two teams are good. They were put together well, size and everything. We’re ready to compete and fight.”
Aside from Anderson, who now carries the Chinese name Kaier Li, China also has its twin towers in seven-footers Zhou Qi and Wang Zhelin.
Clarkson is no stranger to facing the Chinese.
In fact, Gilas Pilipinas nearly defeated China, 80-82, the first time Clarkson donned the national colors in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018.
