Gilas to face Macau Black Bears in send-off for FIBA Asia Cup

June 24 ------ GILAS Pilipinas will be going up against Macau Black Bears in a friendly game that will serve as a sendoff before they compete in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025. National coach Tim Cone said they plan to hold the game at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum so that fans can watch it ahead of the FIBA Asia Cup to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from August 5 to 17.

“I’m not sure if it’s the 28th or 29th. I think we are trying to get the Araneta Coliseum. That’s kind of a send-off for the fans before we leave,” said Cone on Saturday during the Power and Play program on True FM. Initially, Cone said the plan was to play Guam where San Miguel player Jericho Cruz is part of. “We tried to invite a couple of teams to come here to play us. We had Guam originally coming in but something happened and it turned out that they can only meet in Jeddah. We weren’t able to bring them here. They were going to come here and then go to Jeddah, but they couldn’t do it,” Cone said. “We moved our attention to a club team and now, looks like we are going to play the Macau Bears."

The Macau Black Bears have been competing in the East Asia Super League and The Asian Tournament, and pose as a test for Gilas Pilipinas with the imports that the club team has. “They beat up on the Chinese national team. They are really strong, they’ve got three imports, one of which might be Jeremy Lin, could be a very, very interesting friendly for us,” Cone said.

Cone also mentioned another friendly game in Jeddah with a team that is already there when they arrive possibly on August 2. The Philippines opens the FIBA Asia Cup against Chinese Taipei on August 6, and goes up against New Zealand on August 8, and Iraq on August 10.

Source: spin.ph