{"id":14706,"date":"2014-06-12T11:47:29","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T03:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=14706"},"modified":"2014-06-12T11:47:29","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T03:47:29","slug":"brooklyn-nets-andray-blatche-granted-filipino-citizenship-to-play-for-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/12\/brooklyn-nets-andray-blatche-granted-filipino-citizenship-to-play-for-national-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Andray Blatche granted Filipino citizenship to play for national team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_14707\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14707\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/5389006313_90e44984d5_b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14707\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/5389006313_90e44984d5_b.jpg\" alt=\"Andray Blatche. Photo by Keith Allison \/ Flickr. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/5389006313_90e44984d5_b.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/5389006313_90e44984d5_b-300x223.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-14707\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andray Blatche. Photo by Keith Allison \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014Brooklyn Nets player Andray Blatche was granted\u00a0Filipino\u00a0citizenship on Wednesday so he can play for the national team at the FIBA World Cup this year,\u00a0Philippine\u00a0officials said.<\/p>\n<p>President Benigno Aquino III signed a law granting citizenship to the American-born Blatche, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, the main author of the law, said Filipinos are a \u201csports-loving nation with a distinct affection for basketball\u201d and that the 2.11-meter (6-foot-11) Blatche can make \u201csignificant contributions toPhilippines\u00a0basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, allows each team to have one naturalized player per tournament. The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0is competing at the World Cup for the first time in 35 years.<\/p>\n<p>Blatche, a centre and power forward, averaged 11.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game this season for Brooklyn, which was eliminated by the Miami Heat in the NBA\u2019s Eastern Conference semifinals last month.<\/p>\n<p>Arriving in the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0on Sunday to meet the team, Blatche said that playing for the country \u201cwasn\u2019t a tough decision\u201d to make.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sport of basketball is huge here,\u201d he told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s in the heart of every\u00a0Filipino\u00a0and I love basketball, and so it\u2019s like we have that similarity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Philippines\u00a0are in Group B at the World Cup, along with Argentina, Croatia, Greece, Puerto Rico and Senegal. The tournament will be held in Spain in late August through early September.<\/p>\n<p>After the World Cup, Blatche will again play for the\u00a0Philippines\u00a0team at the Asian Games in South Korea in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; MANILA,\u00a0Philippines\u2014Brooklyn Nets player Andray Blatche was granted\u00a0Filipino\u00a0citizenship on Wednesday so he can play for the national team at the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-sports","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}