SMART GILAS HISTORY

Smart Gilas[1] is a developmental Philippine national basketball team sponsored by Smart Communications and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). The team is bannered by collegiate and amateur standouts whose ultimate goal is to reach the 2012 London Olympics. The team, formed in early 2009 to instill a long term program for the Philippines men's national basketball team, is coached by former Iran national basketball team coach Rajko Toroman.

Training

The Smart Gilas team has been rigorously training under the European style of play under coach Rajko Toroman. During the 2009 preparation, the team has had exhibition games with local PBA teams [2] where the games were tightly matched. After their brief stint of local competitions, the team went to the United States briefly and held a training camp in Las Vegas, Nevada [3]. They had scrimmages with American Basketball Association’s Las Vegas Aces, where the results were surprisingly in favor of Smart Gilas.

The Smart Gilas team placed 5th overall in the 20th FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2009 behind Al-Arabi of Qatar (4th), Al-Riyadi Beirut of Lebanon (3rd), Zain Jordan (runner-up), and Mahram Tehran of Iran (Champion). The tournament was held in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 12–20, 2009.

Smart Gilas finished 3rd [4] in the 21st Dubai International Basketball Tournament behind Al-Riyadi Beirut of Lebanon (runner-up), and Mahram Tehran BC of Iran (champion). The tournament was held in Dubai, UAE on January 14–23, 2010. Smart Gilas co-captain J. V. Casio was named best guard of the tournament after impressing the organizers with his consistency.

Reinforcements

The team recently tapped the services of former National Basketball Association center-power forward Jamal Sampson to bring much-needed depth in the middle. After the team's stint in the Dubai Club Championship, however, the SBP decided to part ways with Sampson. The team had initially considered naturalizing former Los Angeles Lakers center C. J. Giles[5]. However, Giles was removed from the team due to disciplinary concerns [6]. On February 5, 2010, Smart Gilas conducted a try-out for a new prospect for naturalization. A prospect, Dwayne Jones out of Saint Joseph's University and at the time playing for Austin Toros, was set to sign a contract with the team, but instead got signed by the Phoenix Suns. Suiting up for Smart Gilas in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup 2010 is Milan Vucicevic from Serbia. But after Milan Vucicevic's lack of dominance from the inside during the FIBA Asia Champions Cup stint, the Smart Gilas management decided to drop him from the national team and later on signed another American reinforcement Marcus Douthit who was also a former 2nd round draftpick of the L.A Lakers in 2004. Douthit never played in the NBA, instead he played in Korea and recently in Russia. The Smart Gilas management was impressed of the maturity and high basketball I.Q he showed during his try-out last June of 2010. He also impressed coach Toroman during the 4 day MVP manila invitational in Ninoy Aquino Stadiun where Gilas won 3 of their 4 games. Douthit scored 26 pts during the first game against a CBA team, 18 pts to their defeat against Jordan, and 10 pts, 11 rebounds during their rematch against Jordan where the Nationals won by eleven 91-80. The Smart Gilas management have decided to sign douthit with a one year contract and work on his paper to be naturalized as a Filipino citizen.


In the summer of 2009, other U.S. and Canada-based players also scrimmaged with the team in Las Vegas.. They included 6'11" center Gian Chiu of Oberlin, 6'3" guard Chris Lutz of Marshall, 6'3" guard Marcio Lassiter of Cal State-Fullerton and 6'6" forward Sean Anthony of McGill. Penn State point guard Stanley Pringle was supposed to join the scrimmages, but signed a contract to play in Belgium instead.

To date, only Lassiter, who used up his eligibility in 2009, is seeing active duty for the Smart Gilas team. Lutz will be joining the team after his graduation from Marshall. Anthony is back in McGill and is still pursuing his studies, while Chiu was removed from Oberlin's regular-season lineup after incurring a foot injury early last year. He is currently going through rehabilitation.

In 2010, guard Chris Banchero of Seattle Pacific University was added to the pool after the team's training in Las Vegas, but is still unsure of securing a spot in the team for the Asian Games and the 2010 FIBA-Asia Club Championship due to NCAA eligibility issues. Small forward Christian Standhardinger of Nebraska, who formerly played for the Germany under-18 men's national basketball team is under consideration. Talks are currently underway between the Sta. Lucia Realtors and the Talk N Text Phone Pals for a trade involving Kelly Williams. Williams will be traded to Talk N Text, then re-assigned to Smart Gilas, similar to the Japeth Aguilar case that happened in 2009.

Source:Wikipedia