WITH the Gilas program extended two more years comes an announcement from its principal that offer sheets would be laid on the table for the national team members to consider.
Gilas team manager Frankie Lim told the BusinessMirror on Tuesday that they would want to keep the team’s current members for the 2014 World Championships and to make them stay, he hinted at juicy offers being dangled.
“We’re still discussing the plans for the next two years. But we should be ready by tomorrow [Wednesday],” said Lim.
Majority of the members of the Gilas team, which is bankrolled by Smart, are expected to join the Philippine Basketball Association Draft on August 28.
In fact, Filipino-Americans Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter were the first from the Gilas ranks to apply for the draft. Mark Barroca, Jason Ballesteros and Mac Baracael followed suit.
Jayvee Casio and Dylan Ababou are also expected to be on the Draft registry, which closes on Thursday.
Only team captain Chris Tiu has yet to declare his intention to turn pro although he has had exploratory talks with Powerade’s JB Baylon. Tiu talked to the BusinessMirror and hinted that their turning pro would appear as a team effort.
“My teammates and I are still thinking about it. We’re waiting for [Gilas] management to talk to us. Right now, we don’t know who to approach,’’ said Tiu. “But as I’ve said before, it’s always an honor to serve the country.”
With Gilas, honor comes with lucrative paychecks.
The players are receiving salaries that match what anybody else of star quality gets from the PBA—P150,000 a month on the first year, P225,000 on the second year and P337,500 on the third year.
It is believed though that Barroca, Ballesteros and former member JR Cawaling got P80,000 a month on the first year of the three-year Gilas program that ends next month. How much Barroca and Ballesteros are getting now has not been made public.
Aguilar is perhaps the “richest” among the nationals. Because of his celebrated and controversial reentry to the local basketball scene—he played briefly for Ateneo before honing in the US—he is believed to have signed an P18-million package—P350,000 a month in 2009, P500,000 in 2010 and P700,000 this year. In the PBA, the maximum salary is P350,000 a month, which the likes of James Yap, Jimmy Alapag, Kelly Williams, Mark Caguiao, Jayjay Helterbrand, among others, are receiving.
Aguilar is under contract with Talk ’N Text and is “on loan” to Gilas until after the 2011 Fiba-Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, next month.
Marcus Douthit? He could be getting P700,000 a month, figures original choice for naturalization CJ Giles got, or more.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) has extended the Gilas program for the 2013 International Basketball Federation (Fiba)-Asia Championship for Men where three slots are at stake for the World Championship in 2014.
And the best way to be competitive until 2014, Lim said, is to keep the team’s core that would work around Douthit.
The 2011 Draft is expected to go shallow and that Gilas members would be prime commodities if they indeed apply.
Smart Gilas-Pilipinas finished third in the recent William R. Jones Cup in Taiwan and is now preparing for a four-nation Doha invitational tournament in Qatar from August 24 to 29 as part of its preparations for Wuhan. Qatar, Syria and Lebanon are also joining the tournament.
Head coach Rajko Toroman is bringing a full roster to Doha, including Talk ’N Text’s Kelly Williams, Jimmy Alapag and Ranidel de Ocampo.
