Twenty-five-year-old Kiefer Ravena is seeing action once again in the basketball scene, not only returning to Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team NLEX Road Warriors’ practices after serving an 18-month FIBA suspension but also suiting up for national team Gilas Pilipinas in preparation for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in August.
The former Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) superstar was called to join Team Philippines by head coach Yeng Guiao, hoping that he fills the shoes of point guard Jayson Castro who is attending to family matters. Guiao explained, “For me, as of now, [Kiefer] is the most logical choice to fill up the slot of Jayson. I saw that he wasn’t careless with his body. He’s going to be probably a little out of shape or of timing but my guess is it will take a short time for him to recover from where he left off when he was suspended,” adding, “I’m not worried about him actually. I have no worries about Kiefer. He’s going to be competitive and he’s going to be ready for the World Cup.”
Ravena was able to bond with his new teammates for the first time during practice on Monday, June 24 at the Meralco Gym, with the Phenom anticipating his first official game on August 24 when his suspension is officially over. The FIBA rule states that during “the last two months of ineligibility or the last one-quarter of period of ineligibility imposed,” he may go to practice.
Among the other new additions to the Philippine national team are also PBA rookies Robert Bolick and CJ Perez, who were experiencing their first practice with Gilas as well. When asked about why he recruited the two top draftees in the recent PBA rookie draft, Coach Yeng explained to CNN Philippines, “To state the obvious, they’ve really been playing well with their mother teams — Bolick with NorthPort and CJ with Columbian. They’ve really been giving a good account of themselves. We also know they’ve dominated college basketball so that’s a really good background. It’s really time for them to start gaining experience playing with the veterans and at the level of the national team.”
Ravena, Bolick, and Perez were joined by Stanley Pringle, Paul Lee, June Mar Fajardo, Troy Rosario, Roger Pogoy, Mark Barroca, Poy Erram, Japeth Aguilar, and Marcio Lassiter, who were already on the roster.