Andray Blatche to play for the Philippines National Team (Interview inside)..

[tgan3]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqXleNLMK40

You can say that they bended the FIBA rules as Blatche is 0% filipino (Until recently where they granted him citizenship based on his basketball value) yet he gets to play in their national team...

[JohnMax]

LMAO, this is a joke. It would be like recruiting Messi and Ronaldo for US soccer team.

[chris02jammers]

still won't win a single game in August

[Rubio2Gasol]

They should try to recruit Dwight. He would enjoy himself in the Phillipines.

[GimmeThat]

I don't know

I think/thought coaches coaching for another national team was quite where it's at/limit.

If they start doing this for players, then the players should at least have a relative (maybe just 1st, arguably second if Olympics/FIBA thinks the competition has been THAT weak and pathetic) before they should be allowed to grant citizenship based on "value"

[deja vu]

Their professional league has a height limit.

[tgan3]

I don't know

I think/thought coaches coaching for another national team was quite where it's at/limit.

If they start doing this for players, then the players should at least have a relative (maybe just 1st, arguably second if Olympics/FIBA thinks the competition has been THAT weak and pathetic) before they should be allowed to grant citizenship based on "value"

I re-read the FIBA rules and actually 1 naturalized citizen is allowed per team. Therefore, it is within the rules. But I thought it was funny how someone gets citizenship from playing well at sports.

[jzek]

LMAO! They already a black dude named Daughtrie or soemthing trying to pass as a Filipino and now Blatche?!?

I love Flips and their food but they should be outright banned in Asian tournaments. 97% of their roster are Filipino-Americans, 2% are pure Americans, and only 1% are pure Filipinos. Their team basically is an American team. 14 out of 15 of their national players grew up here in the States.

Have some pride like the Chinese

[chris02jammers]

[QUOTE=jzek]LMAO! They already a black dude named Daughtrie or soemthing trying to pass as a Filipino and now Blatche?!?

I love Flips and their food but they should be outright banned in Asian tournaments. 97% of their roster are Filipino-Americans, 2% are pure Americans, and only 1% are pure Filipinos. Their team basically is an American team. 14 out of 15 of their national players grew up here in the States.

Have some pride like the Chinese [/QUOTE
agree Full of Fil Sham

[ErhnamDjinn]

LMAO! They already a black dude named Daughtrie or soemthing trying to pass as a Filipino and now Blatche?!?

I love Flips and their food but they should be outright banned in Asian tournaments. 97% of their roster are Filipino-Americans, 2% are pure Americans, and only 1% are pure Filipinos. Their team basically is an American team. 14 out of 15 of their national players grew up here in the States.

Have some pride like the Chinese

so I guess Spain should be banned for getting Ibaka?? Its in the rules heck the other teams like Japan , Korea are doing it also. Plus I have no problem with the Fil-Ams who are these 0% Filipinos you speak of? As far as I know the whole team is either Filipino's or players with Filipino Liniege. Get your facts straight.

[ErhnamDjinn]

Gilas Pilipinas final 12-man lineup
1. Marcus Douthit - current naturalized player being replaced by Blatche
2. Jimmy Alapag - Fil-am but been playing here for over 10yrs
3. Jayson Castro - Local player
4. Ranidel De Ocampo- Local player
5. Larry Fonacier -Local
6. Jeff Chan -Local
7. Gabe Norwood - Filam
8. LA Tenorio - Local
9. Japeth Aguilar- local
10. Gary David- local
11. Marc Pingris - local
12. June Mar Fajardo- local

where the f*ck is the 90% non filipino roster? I think they only got Andre to shore up the rebounds , anyway where still getting thrashed in Spain, but its still nice that where currently 2nd best in Asia and its a great learning experience. BTW we where actually supposed to recruit Javale Mcgee.

[GimmeThat]

I re-read the FIBA rules and actually 1 naturalized citizen is allowed per team. Therefore, it is within the rules. But I thought it was funny how someone gets citizenship from playing well at sports.

how does that rule runs out though? As in one on a team at once per competition? or similar to the amnesty rule, where each country is allowed to recruit one player for a certain amount of years?

gaining citizenship from excelling in a particular area isn't extremely absurd. But again, I don't know, because I don't think FIBA should be regulating on "how many practices a player attends before he is qualified to play the game" but then, a player can just show up for the game and it does absolutely nothing in terms of making the competition tougher.

I just think it should be a committment more than just "showing up to play the games" when we are talking about citizenship here. Maybe I overestimate the status of citizenship, even that of Philippines.

[Oly BC]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqXleNLMK40

You can say that they bended the FIBA rules as Blatche is 0% filipino (Until recently where they granted him citizenship based on his basketball value) yet he gets to play in their national team...

They didn't bend the rules, it happens all the time and most countries have at least one such player or even more (they can only use one).

Ibaka or Mirotic playing for Spain is still way better than americans playing for countries they've hardly visited.

[tgan3]

how does that rule runs out though? As in one on a team at once per competition? or similar to the amnesty rule, where each country is allowed to recruit one player for a certain amount of years?

gaining citizenship from excelling in a particular area isn't extremely absurd. But again, I don't know, because I don't think FIBA should be regulating on "how many practices a player attends before he is qualified to play the game" but then, a player can just show up for the game and it does absolutely nothing in terms of making the competition tougher.

I just think it should be a committment more than just "showing up to play the games" when we are talking about citizenship here. Maybe I overestimate the status of citizenship, even that of Philippines.

I think its 1 to a competition, they can have more than 1 naturalized player in their "pool" but the final 12 men can only have 1. Also, they said Blatche might think of settling down in the Philippines and marry a Filipino wife (He's rich and single after all, he can easily hook any one of them there)...

[East_Stone_Ya]

They should try to recruit Dwight. He would enjoy himself in the Phillipines.

lol