Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) reiterated its desire to have Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson play for Gilas Pilipinas as a local, especially in the FIBA 2023 Basketball World Cup, which the Philippines will be co-hosting.
“I want him to be a local but we have to continue to work with FIBA,” SBP President Al Panlilio told Sports Page.
It won’t be easy, though.
The primary requirement Clarkson and SBP need to fulfill is to convince FIBA that the Utah Jazz player has secured a Philippine passport before reaching the age of 16.
Clarkson and SBP have already submitted his papers before but FIBA doubted the veracity of Clarkson’s passport, according to reports, making him ineligible to play as a local in the 2015 Asia Cup and in the 2019 World Cup.
If that’s already a dead end, one way to get Clarkson, 28, play for the Philippines as a local is through special exemption.
It’s something that FIBA afforded Indonesian-American Brandon Jawato last November and Gilas’ Filipino-American Greg Slaughter in 2018.
Despite not getting an Indonesian and Philippine passports before turning 16 years old, respectively, FIBA gave the two an exemption for a primary reason: they have been residing and playing in their respective countries’ professional leagues for quite a long time — Jawato 5 years and Slaughter 11 years, then, in 2018.
Obviously, Clarkson didn’t have that.
But SBP can use Clarkson having already played for Gilas in the 2018 Asian Games as a local, and his occasional visits here in the country in the recent past, as well as his visits to his mother’s family in Pampanga during his childhood as a case.
It’s up for FIBA to decide. If it denies Clarkson as a local, he can only play as a naturalized player for Gilas.