THE shooting prowess of the Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball team tasked to regain basketball supremacy in Southeast Asia suffered a major blow with the injury of sweet-shooting Roger Pogoy.
The TNT stalwart fractured his right pinky finger last Friday during the Tropang Giga’s Game 3 battle with the Barangay Ginebra Kings in the 2023 Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup Finals.
The 6’2” Pogoy has informed Gilas coach Chot Reyes of his situation, going into Monday practices.
“‘Yung SEA Games (Cambodia), wala na. Hindi na talaga ako aabot sa SEA Games. Sabi na rin ni Coach Chot (Reyes) na hindi aabot,” said the 30-year-old Pogoy, who watched from the bench during Game 4 on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Without Pogoy, the guard list of Gilas still has the likes CJ Perez, Chris Ross, Earl Scottie Thompson, Stanley Pringle, Jr., Michael Williams, Chris Newsome, Norman Aaron Black and Kevin Louie Alas.
But a healthy Pogoy would have given the Philippine team additional firepower against the region’s powerhouses such as Thailand and Indonesia, which dethroned the Philippines from its basketball throne during last year’s SEA Games in Vietnam.
The 30-year-old Pogoy was part of that Gilas team that settled for silver.
Pogoy said he wanted to play in Game 4 of the ongoing PBA finals, but couldn’t.
“Gustung-gusto ko sana maglaro lalo nu’ng nakita ko yung crowd kanina, ang sarap maglaro. ‘Yun lang talaga, disgrasya talaga,” said Pogoy.
He was averaging 12.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists during PBA the finals’ series.
Pogoy said it will take many months before he can fully recover from his injury.
The injury happened when Pogoy was defending against Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger.
“Nu’ng third quarter nu’ng last game, sinundot ko ‘yung bola kay Christian tapos umilag siya, so ‘yung kamay ko dumiretso sa ribs niya. Napalakas ‘yung sundot ko kaya nabali. Bali talaga,” said Pogoy as he recalled the incident.