WILL PBA players, donning the national colors, make it all the way to the inaugural edition of 3x3 basketball in the Olympics?
That's the target for the quartet of CJ Perez, Moala Tautuaa, Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol. The tricky question is how, amidst lockdown, will they be able to get together and start training for the Olympic qualifier that is a month away.
The answer is expected from Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio during the PBA board meeting Monday. Panlilio will be in the meeting also as a member of the PBA board representing the Meralco Bolts team.
The PBA, particularly the teams of Perez (San Miguel Beer), Tautuaa (San Miguel Beer), Munzon (TerraFirma) and Pasaol (Meralco), is committed to give full support to the country's 3x3 Olympic bid.
A big hindrance is the quarantine status disallowing Perez, Tautuaa, Munzon and Pasaol to be together in training in Metro Manila.
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An option is a bubble camp at the Inspire Center in Calamba, Laguna which was already allowed open for the national athletes in the most recent meeting by the Inter-Agency Task Force.
Munzon, Pasaol and Tautuaa and Perez gold medal winners in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, will be up against heavyweights in the Graz event set May 26-30.
Twenty teams divided into four groups of five slug it out in the event with only the top three making it to the Tokyo Games.
The Philippines is in Pool C with Slovenia, France, Qatar and Dominican Republic.
Other Olympic bidders in the Graz qualifier are Mongolia, Poland, Brazil, Turkey and Czech Republic in Pool A, USA, Lithuania, Belgium, South Korea and Kazakhstan in Pool B and the Netherlands, Latvia, Canada, Croatia and Austria in Pool D.
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Teams already seeded in the Olympics are Slovenia, Russia, China and Japan. (SB)
