THE pro league beckons the national players with the draft just around the corner and the duration of their international duties uncertain.

For the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), international duty stretches to the London Olympics in 2012—but that is if Smart Gilas-Pilipinas somehow gets lucky and tops the Fiba-Asia Championship in September in Wuhan, China.

“We better not discuss the draft because it will only discourage the players. Who knows, we could get lucky and be in the Olympics,” said SBP executive director Sonny Barrios on Tuesday in the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at Shakey’s United Nations Avenue.

“A stroke of luck. You’ll never know,” he said. “If we make it to the Olympics, there’s no sense in breaking up the team.”

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Rookie Draft is scheduled on August 28, while the International Basketball Federation (Fiba)-Asia Championship for Men is slated from September 15 to 25 with the champion getting the lone ticket to the London Games.

 “I don’t want to say that they are joining the draft because it’s tantamount to accepting that we’re not going to qualify for the Olympics,” Barrios said.

Except for Chris Tiu, the others on the team—Mark Barroca, JV Casio, Mac Baracael, Jason Ballesteros, Chris Lutz, Dylan Ababou and Marcio Lassiter—already hinted about their PBA ambitions.

Naturalized player Marcus Douthit is not eligible for the draft, while Japeth Aguilar is already with Talk ’N Text.