After a grueling PBA Governors’ Cup finals series that ended in a heartbreaking defeat to Petron Blaze, Talk ’N Text veteran guard Jimmy Alapag said he is taking a brief rest..

..and then put his attention to joining the national basketball team as the Smart Gilas Pilipinas squad prepares for the FIBA-Asia championship in China next month.

“As tough as it was to finish the year one step short of winning a third championship, there’s still the FIBA-Asia,” the 5-foot-9 Alapag, the 2011 PBA Season Most Valuable Player (MVP), told the Bulletin in a telephone interview yesterday. “My focus now is on the Smart-Gilas team.”

Alapag and his wife, former actress LJ Moreno, will leave for Los Angeles today for a week-long vacation, but he said that he’ll be bringing some video tapes of Smart-Gilas Pilipinas games to analyze and study the system of Serbian coach Rajko Toroman.

Aside from Alapag, his TNT teammates Kelly Williams and Ranidel de Ocampo are joining him to reinforce the national team for the FIBA-Asia Championship beginning September 15. The top two teams in the event will make it to the 2012 London Olympics.

“Before I leave town, hopefully I can get some video of Smart-Gilas. I had several practice sessions with the team, I watched them play. Everything I’ve learned, hopefully I can jump in with my TNT teammates and pick up the system as quick as possible,” Alapag said.

“The last thing I want to do is to affect the chemistry of the team, because all I want to do is help the team win. As I’ve said, it’s always a huge honor to represent our country. I’ll do whatever I can just to help the national team,” he added.

Toroman has added Alapag, who played in the PBA-backed SMC-Team Pilipinas during the Olympic-qualifier FIBA-Asia Championship in Tokushima, Japan, because of his leadership and experience. He is expected to bolster the point guard rotation that also include JV Casio and Mark Barroca.

In 2007, he led the Philippine team in scoring and assists with 16 points and 2.8 dimes per game, and had 32 points against Syria.

Alapag and Talk ’N Text fell short of completing a Grand Slam when they lost to the Petron Boosters in Game 7 of the Governors’ Cup Finals last Sunday.

“As far as the series, what happened is that the injuries to our team, the length of the season and playing in three Finals, it sort of took its toll on us,” said Alapag, who also sprained his right ankle early in the conference.

In the last game of the series, four of his teammates – guard Jason Castro, Harvey Carey, Ryan Reyes and De Ocampo – played with injuries that hampered their performance.

“I don’t want to take away anything on Petron, they played well and you have to give credit on them,” said Alapag.

“We had injury problems. But that’s no excuse. Now it’s a matter of resting both mentally and physically for the next season.” 

source: Waylon Galvez -mb.com.ph