MANILA, Philippines – The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has elevated its case to the FIBA, or International Basketball Federation, hoping to get reprieve there to allow Fil-Ams Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz to play in the ongoing FIBA-Asia Championship in Wuhan, China.

SBP executive director Sonny Barrios has reportedly written FIBA a letter as soon as news came out that a protest filed by Lebanon seeking to disallow Lassiter and Lutz was upheld, forcing the Rajko Toroman-mentored Nationals to play with the two guards against United Arab Emirates last night.

"Apparently, some people from Lebanon are telling FIBA Asia officials to tell Gilas to show papers of Marcio (Lassiter) and Chris (Lutz) that they became Filipinos at age of 16," said a source privy to the SBP and the Smart Gilas but requested anonymity because he was not given authority to speak.

"They're invoking the wrong rules because that applies only to naturalized players, not to Fil-Ams," the same source added.

Smart Gilas was actually telling FIBA Asia officials that same argument, but the former was told to get approval from the FIBA administration office in Geneva, Switzerland.

"The SBP has already emailed a letter to FIBA Worlds, our fate is now in the hands of FIBA," said the source.

SBP has actually submitted the papers of Lassiter and Lutz as early as last month and they should be allowed to play since they've followed the same rules the country complied to in the past.

Lassiter and Lutz had actually played as Filipinos like in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, the 2010 Stankovic Cup in Lebanon, the Southeast Asian Basketball Association Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia a few months back and several FIBA-Asia Champions Cups making the Lebanon protest baseless and a clear case of harassment.

"We did that to Fil-Ams before like Eric Menk and he was allowed to play. It’s obvious that Lebanon is just dragging us down," said the source.

source: Joey Villar -Philstar.com