CEBU City—Basketball 3×3 won’t stop for Chooks-to-Go and next up on Ronald Mascariñas’s goal is a naturalized player who could carry the country in the company of the event’s world powers.
“We’re just about to start [ground work on naturalization], and we have well-entrenched lawyers who could speed up the naturalization process,” Mascariñas said. “I have instructed coach Chico [Lanete] to identify who can be the best naturalization candidate to help the team.”
Mascariñas, president of Chooks-to-Go and Bounty Agro Ventures who’s called the godfather of Philippine 3×3, bared the plan during the Chooks-to-Go International Basketball Federation (FIBA) 3×3 World Tour Cebu Masters.
Mascariñas withheld identifying who the candidates for naturalization are but 27-year-old Cameroonian Mike Henry Nzeusseu, who had been in the country for 10 years and played for Lyceum of the Philippines University, could be one of them. He’s an import of the local team.
Lanete, who retired from active competition on Saturday, said he’s scouting for more candidates.
“We need a tall player who can shoot from the outside and is very athletic and strong, who can block shots,” said Lanete, adding Nigerian Henry Iloka is also in the radar.
“They’re not yet the candidates but they’re part of the naturalization plan,” Lanete said. “We will start to find the best one once we return to Manila. He must be exclusive only for 3X3 competitions.”
Mascariñas said the Paris 2024 Olympics is one of their goals, but expressed more confidence of a Philippine team playing in the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
“We’ll make sure that by then, we already have a naturalized player,” he said.
He added that Chooks-to-Go would do everything to inspire players to be part of the 3×3 dream.
“It’s a work in progress and we just need to keep doing things to inspire our people, giving our people the inspiration and hope to continue fighting,” Mascariñas added. “We won’t give up.”
Mascariñas admitted that making the global stage remains a goal, but matching the achievement of Olympic champion Latvia is doable.
“It’s still a long way to be in that level. Maybe if our players in 2019 are still here, I guess we already achieved some things, but we do not give up despite we’re starting from zero,” he said.