Kiefer Ravena tipped his hat to the entire Gilas Pilipinas crew for the sacrifices they have done together while inside the bubble preparing for the now-called off 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers’ third window supposed to be held in Qatar.
The national team captain penned a tribute via Instagram Friday, shortly after reports circulated that the tilt set to take place from Feb. 17-23 has been postponed due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Thank you, my brothers! We’ve fought day in and day out, pushed each other to our limits, and sacrificed time away from family and loved ones — all part of our journey to represent our country,” wrote Ravena.
Gilas has been training inside the bubble at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna since Jan. 10, gearing up for the week-long tournament where they were set to face South Korea and Indonesia.
Also in the Calambubble were Isaac Go, Matt Nieto, Mike Nieto, Rey Suerte, Javi Gomez de Liaño, Dave Ildefonso, Justine Baltazar, Calvin Oftana, William Navarro, Kemark Carino, CJ Perez, Justin Chua, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Raul Soyud, Dwight Ramos, and naturalized player candidate Angelo Kouame.
Coaches also inside were Tab Baldwin, Jong Uichico, Norman Black, Caloy Garcia, Sandy Arespacochaga, Boyet Fernandez, Yuri Escueta, Andrei Tolentino, and Alton Lister. Support staff like team manager Gabby Cui, Ms. Yvette Ruiz and Bong Talavera were also in there.
Kai Sotto arrived in the Calambubble last Monday.
FIBA initially planned to hold those games — as well as Group C play among Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and Hong Kong — at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, the same location the PBA used for its Season 45 bubble.
However, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas had to beg off from hosting the meet due to the restrictions imposed by the Philippine government caused by the new variant of the coronavirus, thus the transfer to Doha.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Public Health in Qatar has ordered to cancel all events to be hosted there due to the increasing rates of COVID-19 cases in the country, marking yet another setback for the Asia Cup Qualifiers.
This postponement is indeed tough for teams like Gilas, which is sitting atop Group A with a clean 3-0 record and needs just one win to qualify into the Asia Cup proper on Aug. 16-28 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Still, Ravena is nothing but grateful to have worked with the Nationals, which were supposed to fly out in Doha Saturday.
“To the Avengers aka our coaching staff, over 100 years of experience shared to a bunch of hard-headed players. We appreciate you guys for the patience, dedication, and attention to detail,” wrote the 27-year-old.
“We will bring everything with us to be better basketball players. Sa lahat ng Gilas fans, hanggang sa muli! Salamat sa supporta! Kahit hindi tuloy ang laro, alam naman nanjan kayo pra supportahan kami.”
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