Gilas Pilipinas receives ‘welcome’ tweet from Miami Heat

Gilas Pilipinas, the Philippine national basketball team, received a pleasant surprise early Tuesday (PHL time) - a "welcome" tweet from the National Basketball Association's Miami Heat.

The Heat posted a welcome message for Gilas and national coach Vincent "Chot" Reyes on its official Twitter account shortly after 3 a.m., Manila time.

Welcome to Miami, @coachot and @smartgilasph! We hope your training camp for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup is going well!

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) July 28, 2014

Reyes tweeted back: "Whoa!"

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is Filipino-American, who maintains strong ties with the Philippines. He steered the Heat to the 2013-2014 NBA Finals.

Gilas Pilipinas is in Florida to train for the FIBA 2014 Basketball World Cup, which will take place in Spain from August 30 to September 14.

The Philippines is in Group B, together with Argentina, Croatia, Greece, Puerto Rico, and Senegal. — Joel Locsin/DVM, GMA News