Understanding the Ray Parks Situation

Gilas Pilipinas is now less than a week away from possibly its lone game of the first window of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers against Indonesia which means the National Team only has a few days left to prepare before flying for Indonesia. Not to mention that interim Gilas Coach Mark Dickel is yet to announce who will make it to the final 15 line-up which the team will be fielding in on the 23rd considering the number of players who either begged off or, haven't shown up in practices even though they were included in the 24-man pool that the SBP had announced last month.

 As of this moment, only two players have yet to show up in practice. One being Justine Baltazar of the De La Salle Green Archers in the UAAP. The other one? Ray Parks, who is still trying to figure things out in order to finalize a deal to return to the TNT KaTropa in the PBA.

Technically, Ray Parks has no team as the two-conference deal that he signed with the Blackwater Elite just expired right after the PBA's 44th season. And since the announcement of the 24-man training pool for the February window of the Asia Cup qualifiers, it has been reported that Ray Parks was still finalizing a deal to return to the KaTropa. Right now, the situation is still "is finalizing a deal" which had some fans ask, "Why is Gilas still waiting on Ray Parks?" 

Let's try to put things in perspective, shall we?

Ray Parks is genuinely one of the young stars in the PBA who is also the son of one of the greatest imports in the history of the PBA, the late Bobby Parks Sr. The notion that Ray Parks choosing to deal with his PBA future over the call to play for the flag is unfair especially for a guy who gave so much for the National Team during his past stints. There are two reasons why Ray Parks deferring to play in the February window of the Asia Cup qualifiers is fair:

Ray Parks needs to fix his PBA first before playing for the National Team. Although he could technically do so without fixing things with TNT, you wouldn't want the company whom you are about to work for hanging just because you had a call to answer, would you?

Along with wanting to fix his PBA future first, Ray Parks cannot risk getting himself injured either in practice or, in the game itself while the negotiations are still ongoing as potential injuries could hurt his market value. In other words, it's about eliminating possible risks.

Fortunately, Gabby Cui, the team manager of both Gilas Pilipinas and the TNT KaTropa, said that the negotiations are almost done and they are looking to get it done as early as this week. And they actually did as Ray Parks and TNT finally agreed on a one-year deal.

While Ray Parks is likely out of the Gilas pool for the February game, there are still more windows of the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers to come and by then, Ray Parks will surely be ready to don the National colors anew. 

Photo is from Tiebreaker Times