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Source : NBA.com

THE PBA board of governors has given league commissioner Chito Salud the green light to revise and shorten this season’s Governors Cup to give way to Gilas Pilipinas’ preparation for the Fiba Asia men’s championships which the country will be hosting in August.



Salud said the Governors Cup was supposed to run from May 12-July 28, which would leave an all-pro Gilas team very little time to prepare for the August 1-11 event serving as the Asian qualifier for the world basketball championships in Spain in 2014.

“The board has agreed for the commissioner to study and abbreviate the third conference which was supposed to start on May 12 and end on July 28,” Salud announced after emerging from a three-hour board meeting at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City.

“This schedule had been compressed already by the PBA after consultation with the SBP (Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas) and the national team leaders after we were given the impression that the Fiba qualifying tournament, which we will now host, will start at the end of August or first week of July.

"Now it turns out the Fiba tournament will start on August 1, so now, our July 28 will seem impractical so we will (again) shorten the schedule. Details will follow,” he added.

At the same time, the board has also approved Salud's proposal to mandate each PBA team to lend at least one player to the national side, with the addendum that coach Chot Reyes will be given the latitude to pick more than one player from teams that are willing to go beyond what is mandated.

Reyes will also be given the freedom to pass up on teams that have no players to fill his needs.

“If within the judgment of the national team coach, he doesn’t need any player from any team, so be it. But the general principle stays - one player per team in accordance with the needs and requirements of the national team,” said Salud.

While Salud said he will be needing a week or two to revise the third conference schedule, he is set to sit down with Reyes by Tuesday next week after Gilas completes its campaign in the Super Keung Sheung Cup in Hong Kong.