Filipino naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame lead the Gilas Pilipinas squad that will be defending its basketball gold medal in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand this December.
Coach Norman Black, tasked to steer the national squad for the biennial games, told media men covering the second day of the PBA Draft Combine on Friday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City that outside the two naturalized players, also committed to play for the Philippine team are Japan B.League imports Bobby Ray Parks and Matthew Wright, along with Remy Martin, top PBA rookie aspirant Jason Brickman, MPBL star Dave Ildefonso and collegiate standout Veejay Pre.
Black, who will be calling the shots for the national team just the second time in his distinguished coaching career in the SEA Games, said he is now on the look out for possible big men to fill up the remaining four available spots in the team from the UAAP.
“We’re hoping to be able to add big men. We’re hoping that we might get some consideration from the UAAP because they have a lot of big men there who can help us,” Black said on Friday.
“And they’re young and good, so we’re hoping they can make adjustments to allow their players to play in the SEA Games.”
Black first handled the Philippine team in the 2011 SEA Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. His players back then include Greg Slaughter, Kiefer Ravena, Garvo Lanete, Dave Marcelo, Chris Tiu, Nico Salva, and Filipino-Americans Chris Ellis and Cliff Hodge.
That team was then known as Sinag Pilipinas.
Martin played college basketball for Arizona and Kansas, where he was part of the Jayhawks’ US NCAA men’s basketball title in 2022.
The 6-foot-1 Filipino-American guard played for Keflavik and helped his team win the Icelandic Cup last year.
Martin, along with Brickman, will be suiting up for the Philippine team for the first time come December.
The Philippines regained the SEA Games basketball gold in 2023 after beating the import-laden Cambodian team in the in the gold medal match in Phnom Penh.
