What follows will be the strangest sentence I will type this week, no doubt:
There is a bill working its way through the legislature in the Philippines to make JaVale McGee a naturalized citizen so he can play for their national basketball team in time for the 2013 Asia Championships (which feed into the World Championships in 2014).
It’s still as strange as the day we first wrote about it, but the legislation is new, something we learned about from SB Nation. For clarification, we need to add this — the Philippines did not qualify for the Olympics or the pre-Olympic last-chance qualifying tournament this summer. They will not be playing in London this summer.
But that doesn’t make the fans in the Philippines any less basketball mad — they love the sport over there. They haven’t produced a lot of great talent (yet) but there is passion for the sport. Which was evident during some exhibition games there during the lockout.
Games that JaVale McGee looked awesome in. Of course he did, there is no structure, it’s just freelancing and athleticism. That’s what McGee does well, it’s the whole structure, know your defensive rotations stuff that he struggles with. It is those things that helped keep him off Team USA for the World Championships in Turkey in 2010 — McGee was in camp but lost out for a spot to Tyson Chandler.
McGee has tweeted he would love to represent the Philippines.
So, now they are working brining him on to their national team. Through national edict. He sure would make that team a lot more interesting to watch.
