Fil-foreign players who are still working on their papers that would serve as their pass for the 2010 PBA Annual Draft can heave a sigh of relief.
Commissioner Sonny Barrios yesterday extended the deadline for submission of applications from Wednesday (July 14) to Monday (July 19) to give Fil-foreign aspirants enough time complete the documents required from them to be eligible to join the Draft scheduled on August 29 at Market! Market! in Taguig City.
“The documents we require from Fil-foreign applicants need some time to be processed so we are extending the deadline for a few days so they can gather all the documents they need,” Barrios explained.
He said there will be no more extension after July 19.
So far, 16 applicants, including three foreign-bred players and a one-time NCAA Most Valuable Player (MVP), have made themselves available for the Annual Draft.
John Wilson of Jose Rizal University and Josh Thomas Vanlandingham lead the early aspirants in the league’s first official activity for its 36th season.
Wilson is the 6-foot-3 wily Heavy Bomber guard who steered JRU to the NCAA Final Four last year, on his way to winning the season’s MVP award. He also suited up for Oracle and Fern C in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL).
Vanlandingham, meanwhile, hails from Seattle,USA and saw action for Everett CC. Upon arriving here, he played for Hapee Toothpaste in the PBL that placed runner-up to Harbour Center.
The 26-year old forward also happens to be the great grandson of Filipino Olympic medalist, the late swimming great Teofilo Yldefonso.
Aside from Vanlandingham, the other Fil-Am players in this year’s draft are Robert Francis Simpson Jr. from Eckerd College and Sean Paranada of Chabot College. Simpson had stints with Cossak/Cobra in the PBL.
Other bright prospects who already applied are San Sebastian College’s Jimbo Aquino, Philippine Christian University’s Liztian Amparado and high-scoring Letran guard Rafael Joey (RJ) Jazul Jr.
Aquino is best remembered for steering the Stags to a stunning 2-0 sweep of mighty San Beda Red Lions in last year’s NCAA championship series, where he emerged as the unanimous choice as Finals MVP.
The rest of the Draft applicants’ list includes Fred Rick Donato Malabago, Melchor Caysil Gile, Khazim Ali Mirza, Petrus Delmar Santos, Riego Meinardo Villa Ganalinda and Marvin Gallemit Graebel.
Gile was born in Tripoli, Libya while Graebel listed Frankfurt, Germany as his birthplace. The two, however, are considered “homegrown” because they are Philippine passport holders and have NSO birth certificates.
The contestability period will be from July 16 to August 15, 2010 while August 16 is the deadline for submission of application for local board aspirants.
The PBA Commissioner’s Office will announce the official list of candidates for the Draft on August 20. After that all the candidates will participate in a week-long Expanded Rookie Camp set from August 21-27. (pr)
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