Offers Fajardo, Tenorio and Pingris to national team getting ready for FIBA-Asia tourney

The buildup towards making the best squad for the FIBA Asia men’s championships, which will be hosted by the country in August, got a huge boost yesterday after the San Miguel Corporation’s head of sports operations Noli Eala offered three of their stars to be part of the Gilas Pilipinas.

Eala, through his Twitter account, offered LA Tenorio of Barangay Ginebra, Marc Pingris of San Mig Coffee and Cebuano June Mar Fajardo of the Petron Blaze Boosters to join the national cause of making it to the 2014 World Cup, the berths of which are at stake in this tournament.

“Junmar, LA and Ping are also available to Gilas if they want them,” said Eala yesterday morning.

Eala’s statement was a refreshing one considering that Fajardo had not been given the green light to play for the national team by SMC in the past.

Gilas coach Chot Reyes has yet to name the official roster but indicated before how much he would like to have Fajardo and Petron teammate Arwind Santos on the team.

Reyes, at the approval of PBA commissioner Chito Salud, has the privilege of selecting a player each from the PBA squads, in the hopes of making a team formidable enough to make the country proud in its first hosting of the tournament in 40 years.

Tenorio was a key cog of the Gilas program last year, wherein he was a hero in leading the squad to the title of the Jones Cup. He was also named MVP of that competition.

Pingris  had already been clearance to play for the Gilas by San Mig Coffee board governor Rene Pardo.