Will Jordan Clarkson play for Gilas?
Almost all Gilas Pilipinas fans are waiting for the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) decision to let Jordan Clarkson participate as a local player instead of as a naturalized player.
As we all know, in Fiba tournaments, only one naturalized player is allowed to play for a national team.
Currently, the slot for a naturalized player is occupied by Angelo Kouame, an Ivorian center who just got naturalized and became eligible to play for the Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team.
Jordan Clarkson, who is having the best season of his career with the Utah Jazz, is the consensus 6th man of the year and poised to win the award at the end of the current season.
With his exemplary play, observers cannot help but think about letting Jordan play as Gilas’ naturalized player instead of Kouame, for the World Cup.
If Gilas Pilipinas would allow Jordan to play instead of Kouame, we will be losing height but gaining scoring and a ball dominant player who will be demanding the ball in each play.
If AJ Edu and other bigs will step up, we might have a fighting chance to make it to the second round of the World Cup, which the Philippines is co-hosting with Indonesia and Japan around 2 years from now.
The suspense is killing the basketball fans because the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP) is negotiating with the Fiba to classify Jordan as a local to give the Philippines an elbow room to have height and scoring asset at the same time to improve Gilas’ chances to reach even the 2nd round of the World Cup.
The reality is that letting JC participate as a local player is a long shot, the chances of getting Angelo and Jordan play together and have a more formidable team moving forward.
It would be a wonderful opportunity to have plenty of options in the offense as we play the world basketball powerhouses.