Joey Vincent C. Motel | March 3, 2022
*Photo from Google*
Ormocanon hotshot Robert Lee Bolick, Jr. cracked into the Gilas Pilipinas lineup that competed in the ongoing FIBA World Cup Asia qualifiers held at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. More so, he’s earned the attention of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) after being included in the ‘players to watch’ list.
In an article published at its website February 22, the world basketball sanctioning body listed Bolick along with eight (8) others as the tournament’s must-watch players. Alongside the Ormoc native in the list were 38-year old Zaid Abbas of Jordan, Chinese Taipie’s 6-11 sniper Will Artino, Japan’s Isaiah Murphy, Lebanon’s Yousef Khayat, Australian teen sensation Tyrese Proctor, Iran’s monster on the boards Arsalan Kazemi, Saudi Arabia’s Nassir Abo Jalas and Syrian big man Abdul Wahab Alhamwi.
The brightest spot to come of the now-defunct local grassroots program, Ormoc City Schools Sports Organization, last suited for the national team that went winless in the FIBA World Cup in China some three (3) years back. The former Ormoc Se San School Dragon was amongst the few bright spots for that Gilas team after averaging 8.6 points in 14.2 minutes per game.
Bolick will be the only Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) cager outside the Talk N’ Text Tropang Giga core that compose over half of the team. Joining Bolick in the backcourt are Dwight Ramos, Juan Gomez de Liañio and Thirdy Ravena who took a break from their respective Japanese B-League duties to represent the country in the qualifiers. Also donning the national colors are naturalized big man Angelo Kouame, Gilas draftees Tzaddy Rangel and William Navarro and the TNT core of Troy Rosario, Roger Pogoy, Poy Erram, Kelly Williams and Kib Montalbo.
Gilas Pilipinas already secured victory as rival South Korea withdrew from the competition. In their first outing against India, Bolick chipped in 10 points, all in the first half, of the Gilas’ 88-64 victory.
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