Gilas Pilipinas is the Philippine team that will compete in the FIBA Asia Championship, which takes place from September 23 to October 3 in Changsha, China.
Clarkson will be joined by fellow Fil-Am players in the Gilas team that include Bobby Ray Parks Jr, Andray Blatche, Jimmy Alapag, Gabe Norwood, Marcio Lassiter and Moala D. Tautuaa Jr.
Clarkson, 23, whose mother Annette, hails from Angeles, Pampanga in the Philippines is one of the promising players of the NBA and is now on his second year as member of the L.A. Lakers NBA team.
SBP’s announcement that Clarkson will make it to the Gilas team ended speculations that the Lakers’ point guard won’t make it to the Philippine team due to FIBA rules on citizenship and residency of the players.
It turned out that Clarkson has been a holder of Philippine Passport since he was 16 years old.
Before the announcement, SBP Director Sonny Barrios told Rappler.com that reports of Clarkson’s eligibility to play as a “natural born” Filipino player were true.
“We just didn’t tell it to the public,” said Barrios, who says that SBP wanted to submit the Laker guard’s other documents required by FIBA for his eligibility before making the news public.
“He’s submitted his documents,” Barrios said. “It has been submitted to FIBA, who’s asking for supporting documents. As we speak, those are being submitted to them,” he added.
Clarkson’s entry in the 24-man Gilas pool would bring him to Taipei in a few days for the William Jones Cup Invitational before plunging into serious training and team building with Gilas for the upcoming FIBA Asia championship games which starts on Sept. 23.
