The news came from the Philippines. The country's Olympic Committee (POC) along with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) announced the cancellation of the resignation from the 2018 Asian Games basketball branch. That means, the Philippines will still send the basketball team to the biggest sports party in Asia held in Jakarta-Palembang, 18 August - 2 September 2018.
The decision of sending the basketball team to the 2018 Asian Games is based on PBA efforts to listen to fans' requests.
"We realize that there are loud voices from our fans (to continue to perform at the Asian Games) because we are a basketball country. So, we decided to hear their requests," said Ricky Vargas, President of the Philippine Olympic Committee.
POC Secretary General Patrick Gregorio claimed that the OCA and 2018 Asian Games Committee (INASGOC) had accepted their request to re-enter basketball.
With this decision, the Philippine basketball team immediately prepared themselves, although the remaining time was relatively short, only nine days. Yeng Guiao will still serve as head coach with 14 players prepared to be brought to Jakarta.
The final exercise is planned to be held on August 12 and on August 14, the Philippines basketball team departs for Jakarta on August 16, 2018, they will undergo the first match against Iran.
POC and PBA hope Guiao can take the Philippine basketball team to at least pass the achievement at the 2014 Asian Games. At that time, the Philippines finished seventh.
As is known, at the end of last month the Philippines was able to withdraw from the 2018 Asian Games basketball sports due to problems with FIBA. The majority of their national team players and even two coaches, received sanctions from FIBA.
PBA at that time decided to focus more on the appeal of the sanctions received by athletes, who were involved in fights in World Cup qualifiers in Bulacan, July 2, 2018, rather than sending teams to the 2018 Asian Games.
Sources: bola.com
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