The lack of preparation time has almost always been an issue for Gilas Pilipinas—including in the last FIBA Asia Cup, where the national team had just over a week of full practices. So, what will the PBA do to address it? Well, it appears the league’s solution is to extend the upcoming season even more, mixing in long stretches of PBA action with breaks here and there to give Gilas Pilipinas time to prepare for every window of the FIBA Asia World Cup Qualifiers and the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan.
The PBA brass agreed to extend Season 50 to possibly 14 months during the league’s planning session at the MGM Grand Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. The PBA’s golden season is scheduled to start on October 5, 2025, and with this decision, Season 50 could potentially reach the early weeks of December 2026.
Gilas Olympic Dreams at the Center of PBA’s Extended Season
Chairman Ricky Vargas bared to the media that extending the upcoming season is the league’s way of helping Gilas Pilipinas in qualifying for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, in forming a competitive team for the Asian Games, and in ultimately making it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“We want to qualify for the Olympics,” Vargas told PBA scribes in Las Vegas.
“We’re all-in in our support to our chairman and going with it is our support to Gilas,” said PBA Vice Chairman Alfrancis Chua, whose support for Vargas’s Olympic dream was echoed by fellow governors Robert Non (San Miguel Beermen), Jason Webb (Magnolia Hotshots), Bill Pamintuan (Meralco Bolts), Ronald Dulatre (NLEX Road Warriors), Raymond Zorrilla (Phoenix Fuel Masters), Mert Mondragon (Rain or Shine Elasto Painters), Silliman Sy (Blackwater Bossing), Archen Cayabyab (Converge FiberXers), and Erick Arejola (NorthPort Batang Pier).
One path to the Olympics for Gilas Pilipinas is to make the 2027 FIBA World Cup and finish as the top Asian team in the quadrennial tournament. This is ostensibly the reason the PBA is striving to give the national team more preparation time for its qualifying windows, especially since Australia and New Zealand loom as formidable adversaries.
No less than PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial recognizes the challenging road ahead for Gilas Pilipinas, and he has emphasized that the league will throw its full support to the program.
