MANILA, Philippines – Raymond Almazan hopes for another shot with Gilas Pilipinas.

The Rain or Shine star admitted that he keeps his fingers crossed for a possible Gilas return, but said he does not regret missing the national team’s practices that led to Chot Reyes’ decision to drop him from the second window of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.

Almazan, together with Calvin Abueva, did not attend Gilas’ first 3 training sessions before Reyes dropped the hammer. Abueva returned to the team’s subsequent practices and received a ticket back, seeing action against Australia last February 22. Almazan, however, was nowhere to be found. 

“Gusto ko muna ayusin ‘yung mga problema ko. Mahirap kasi magpraktis na alam mo ‘yun, hindi ka focused, hindi ka 100 percent tapos gusto ko 100 percent healthy ako kasi galing din ako sa injury noon tapos ang sama ng nilalaro ko tapos ang daming problema,” Almazan told Rappler. 

(I want to fix my problems first. It is hard to practice when you are not focused, when you are not 100 percent there. I want to be 100 percent healthy because I was coming off an injury and I was not really playing well and I had a lot of problems.)

“Tapos noong dinrop na ako sa pool, parang medyo nagkaproblema na, sunod sunod na ‘yung nangyari.” (And when I was dropped from the pool, the problems started to piled up.)

Almazan did not disclose the problems he was referring to. 

With the 3rd window of the Qualifiers happening in 4 months, Almazan aims to regain his top shape and don the national colors again. 

“Sobrang sarap maglaro para sa bayan so sana next window, makasama ako.” (It is an honor to play for the country so in the next window, I hope I get to be part of Gilas again.) 

The Philippines will host Japan on Sunday February 25, at the Mall of Asia Arena and Almazan’s Gilas teammates can expect his support.

“I’m going to watch. Siguro, magsasabi ako sa Gilas kung pwede akong makanood nang live,” said Almazan. (I’m going to watch. I will probably tell Gilas personnel if I can watch live.) – Rappler.com