SIDELINED for months now by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) duo of CJ Perez and Mo Tautuaa are set for a busy schedule when competitive basketball in the country resumes.

Key stalwarts for Terra Firma (formerly Columbian Dyip) and San Miguel, respectively, Messrs. Perez and Tautuaa are also members of the Philippine 3×3 team that is set to compete in the rescheduled Olympic qualifiers in May next year.

Currently the PBA is awaiting the release of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ Joint Administrative Order, which would allow the 12 PBA teams to restart conditioning sessions by small batches.

The league is angling to resume some activities this week, slowly progressing to scrimmages then eventually returning to competition after the league season was suspended on March 11.

Apart from their responsibilities with their mother teams in the PBA, Messrs. Perez and Tautuaa are set to train as well with the 3×3 team, along with teammates Joshua Munzon and Alvin Pasaol, sometime in September where handlers of the squad hope the conditions are more stable in relation to COVID-19 in the country.

The Philippine 3×3 squad will try to book a spot in the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 where 3×3 basketball is set to make its debut.

Messrs. Perez and Tautuaa had a successful foray into 3×3 basketball in the Southeast Asian Games last year, joining forces with fellow PBA stars Jason Perkins and Chris Newsome to win the gold medal for the country.

Teammates Munzon and Pasaol, meanwhile, are the top two 3×3 basketball players in the Philippines and a staple in various tournaments both here and abroad.

The Philippines will open its Olympic Qualifying Tournament bid in Austria from May 26-30 in Group C along with Slovenia, France, Qatar and the Dominican Republic. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

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