GILAS Pilipinas stalwarts gathered at the PBA Media Day three weeks after their celebrated run to the coveted Asian Games gold medal.
San Miguel Beer's June Mar Fajardo, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter and Cjay Perez, Barangay Ginebra's Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar, TNT's Calvin Oftana Meralco's Chris Newsome, NLEX's Kevin Alas and NorthPort's Arvin Tolentino reminisced about the trying campaign that bonded them like brothers for life.
They gamely posed for photos and shot videos, fielded questions from beat reporters eager to get their interesting anecdotes and reflections from Hangzhou.
And since this was a function serving as prelude to the PBA's Season 48 that kicks off Nov. 5 with the Commissioner's Cup - not to mention the different uniforms of their respective mother clubs they had on - the Gilas mainstays looked ahead to the coming wars.
"We don't need any external motivation. In our team, we tell ourselves: 'Let's keep winning," Ross said during the reunion of sorts for the Hangzhou 12, where only naturalized players Justin Brownlee (still in the US) and Ange Kouame (playing in France) were not present.
Sponsored content: "But there's others, how many other teams - Ginebra, TnT, Meralco, NLEX, NorthPort. We have different teams here thinking the same thing. So it's gonna be fun going out there to compete against these guys (to) see (and show) who really the lucky charm was (in the gold-winning Gilas crew).
"We're all looking forward to competing against each other, being brothers after the bond that we did in those two months," he said.
The Gilas bets expect to go into the new PBA season with more confidence from conquering Asia and breaking a 61-year gold-medal drought.
"Very big help. Personally, naka-gain ako ng lot of experience sa international game especially sa Asian Games and hopefully makatulong this coming PBA season," said Thompson.
"But of course, pinaka-importante pa rin yung hard work throughout the season," he added.
Sponsored content: It's actually back-to-back days of reunion for the Gilas 10 as they're booked to attend the "Gabi ng Parangal at Pasasalamat Para sa Bayaning Atletang Pilipino - the grand awarding ceremonies for the Asian Games achievers with President Marcos himself.
As winners of a gold medal in a team event, Gilas players were awarded with incentives worth P1, 000,000 each as mandated by law.(OL)
