A delegation from Côte d’Ivoire arrived Thursday evening to become the second national squad to reach the country for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
Also known as the Elephants, the Ivorians have joined Montenegro as the first teams to have planed in for the basketball tournament.
The two have been set for closed-door tune-up matches against the Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team at the Philsports Arena.
Côte d’Ivoire, ranked 42nd in the world, is a two-time FIBA AfroBasket champions, but has no NBA player in its roster when it engaged Gilas in a friendly on Friday.
The 18th-ranked Montenegrins will have their turn vs Gilas on Sunday.
Gilas coach Chot Reyes said these tuneup games are important, as they get past the process of reacquainting and reintegrating Utah Jazz cager into their roster.
“This is so that we are able to work on those little things which are important in execution with JC,” said Reyes.
The tuneups will help Gilas cope and adjust to the pressures and high expectations that are upon host Philippines as group phase and final round host.
Reyes will find how well the team is in terms of offense with Clarkson practicing with Kai Sotto, brothers Kiefer and Thirdy Ravenna, marksman Bobby Ray Parks, Jr and slotman June Mar Fajardo.
Meeting these needs will hopefully draw fan support for Gilas.
Aside from Clarkson, there is excitement from fans on the presence in the country of 36 NBA players playing for their respective national teams.
Excitement is also building up for Montenegro’s Nikola Vucevic, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, along with a former Bulls’ cager Marko Simonovic.
The Montengrins will also feature Kendrick Perry, Igor Drobnjak, Petar Popovic, Vladimir Mihailovic, Andrija Slavkovic, Dino Radoncic, Aleksa Ilic, Nemanja Radovic, Marko Simonovic, and Bojan Dubljevic.
The Ivorians, who are on their second World Cup appearance, have veterans like Vafessa Fofana, a member of the 2019 team which played in all 12 games of the African Qualifiers, 36-year-old Souleymane Diabate and 24-year-old Maxence Dadiet.
Diabate and Dadiet have both played in nine of the African Qualifiers.