ALLAN THE MAN

After weeks of agonizing wait for some of the key players that included the reigning back-to-back MVP of the PBA to show up in the national team's practices, despair turned into hope when a rising star from the world's best league came up to make a stand.

Here is an NBA player, who is just coming off a stellar first season in the league where he was named to the All-Rookie First Team, showing his desire to play for the national team. For a basketball-crazy nation that is starving of a star in the NBA who can they call their own, Jordan Clarkson of the Los Angeles Lakers could fit that bill.

Filipino-American guard Jordan Clarkson assured on Thursday that he 'sincerely wants to play for Gilas Pilipinas,' just moments after his father cast doubts on a possible appearance for the Philippine team bound for the FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha, China next month.

In his first statement since arriving in his mother's homeland on Monday, Clarkson made official his desire to play for 'flag and country' if he is given a clearance by the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA and is declared eligible to play for the Philippines by world governing body Fiba.