A pair of former Philippine Basketball Association Best Import awardees will be blocking the path of Gilas Pilipinas in the preliminaries of the men’s basketball event of the 19th Asian Games here.
Former Rain or Shine reinforcement Wayne Chism will rekindle his rivalry with the Filipinos when he powers Bahrain in their opening battle on Tuesday at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium here.
Chism joined the Bahrainis as a naturalized player in 2018 and powered them to a solid performance in the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, posting 15.3 points and 11 rebounds.
Aside from being a threat offensively, it’s Chism’s familiarity with the Filipinos’ brand of basketball that will give the Bahrainis a huge advantage in their 1:30 p.m. encounter.
Also set to battle the Filipinos, who formally landed in this wealthy eastern Chinese city, will be Rondae Hollis-Jefferson — the reigning PBA Best Import awardee for the TNT Tropang Giga.
Hollis-Jefferson acquired his Jordan citizenship only a few months ago, but is expected to work hard to upset the Filipinos in their 5:30 p.m. match on Saturday at the same venue.
He was impressive in his first tour of duty for the Jordanians as he posted 23.6 points, including a 39-point explosion, in the FIBA Basketball World Cup recently.
Hollis-Jefferson was seriously considered to join Gilas Pilipinas as a naturalized player, but he opted to sign with Jordan, a Muslim country, due to his religious affiliation.
Gilas had already brought their last-minute additions in CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Arvin Tolentino, who were all part of the victorious squad in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, as well as Kevin Alas.
They will join holdovers June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar and Scottie Thompson, naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame, Calvin Oftana and Chris Newsome.
Gilas coach Tim Cone said he likes the progress that Gilas Pilipinas is showing, especially with the addition of Perez and other new players.
“CJ was awesome and he impacted us on both sides of the floor, defensively and offensively,” Cone said.
“He’s got that ability. He can take over games every time Justin needs a break, we can go to CJ because he’s such a great one-on-one player. He can get buckets when he needs to because he’s tough to stop.”
