Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes hits out at Asian Games for barring Andray Blatche

Published September 10, 2014 8:41pm

Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes turned to Twitter to express his thoughts on the disqualification of Andray Blatche from playing in the upcoming Asian Games basketball tournament.

The NBA star Blatche, who was conferred Filipino citizenship by a special law signed by President Benigno Aquino III last June, was disqualified by the Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee (IAGOC). The committee said Blatche had to serve a three-year residency period to be eligible to suit up for Gilas.

But in his tweets, Reyes hit out at the inconsistent rules for the Games.

In 2011 I recruited Jordan Clarkson, Steph Holt, Jason Brickman, Christian Standhardinger for d Asian Games, since it's not under FIBA rules

— Chot Reyes (@coachot) September 10, 2014

That was scrapped coz d Asian Games decided to be governed by FIBA rules, thus disqualifying those Fil-ams. Now they refuse to abide by FIBA

— Chot Reyes (@coachot) September 10, 2014

Reyes said that he tried to recruit Filipino-American players Jordan Clarkson, Stephen Holt, Jason Brickman, and Christian Standhardinger in 2011 for the national team as the Asian Games had not adopted FIBA eligibility rules back then.

But because the Asian Games eventually decided to follow the FIBA rule requiring players to acquire a passport by the age of 16 in order to play, Reyes dropped the move.

The total opposite happened in Blatche's case, with the Asian Games ignoring the FIBA eligibility requirements and implementing the rules of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

Blatche is a big key for the Philippine cause in the Asiad, after leading the team in scoring and rebounding in the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) appealed to the OCA to reconsider Blatche's case, arguing that Blatche should be eligible to play due to his stint in the FIBA World Cup as part of the Philippine national team.

FIBA, the world's governing body for basketball, does not require residency for naturalized players to be able to represent a country in a tournament. — JST, GMA News

Tags: 2014fibaworldcup, andrayblatche, 2014asiangames, chotreyes, gilaspilipinas