Now that his B.League duties are over, Dwight Ramos trains his sights on Gilas Pilipinas and the two tough tournaments they’ll be joining later this year.
Life has been good so far for Gilas Pilipinas stalwart Dwight Ramos. He’s just come from a refreshing vacation in Siargao with partner Kim Kianna Dy, and just a few days ago he inked an extension with his Japan B.League team Levanga Hokkaido.
“I’m really excited for the next season,” Ramos told reporters during a viewing party for Game 1 of the B.League finals arranged by the Japan National Tourism Organization. “We have a new coach, a foreign coach, and when I talked with the team they said that they felt like I still didn’t show all that I can do, and I agreed.
“I’m always on the same page with them, and so that’s why I felt like I’m going to stay with Hokkaido again, and hopefully this year we can do some big things.”
Ramos has been with Hokkaido since the 2022-23 season, averaging a B.League career-high 11.4 points per game last season, and his familiarity with the team made it an easy choice for him to re-sign.
“That was my first choice, but obviously there are some other teams I’m talking to, but really, first choice is always Hokkaido.”
In his four seasons in Japan, Dwight has already seen enough to know the differences between Japanese and Philippine basketball.
“For sure, I think there’s a little different discipline,” he said. “We like to have more fun here in the Philippines. It goes both ways. We have good attitudes, good vibes, but at the same time, we’ve got to learn to get a little more disciplined in our sports. I think that’s the difference right now.
Japanese teams, he adds, are now looking for wing players to fill their Asian heritage import slots, and Filipino players can address this demand.
“Japan has a lot of good point guards and smaller shooting guards. The strength of the Philippines, we have a little bit bigger players. We can do kind of everything. That position, 2, 3, maybe 4, those are the teams that are looking for that type of player.”
Gilas duties
With the B/League season behind him and a new contract signed, Dwight Ramos says he will now focus on preparing for his duties for Gilas Pilipinas.
First up will be the FIBA Asia Cup to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in August, where Gilas is grouped with New Zealand, Chinese Taipei and Iraq. The absence of center Kai Sotto will complicate things for Gilas.
“The Asia Cup is going to be tough for sure,” Ramos says. “We don’t have Kai. We’re going to figure it out and see who’s available, who can play. Our job as players is just to show up and do our best.
“That’s all I’m going to do. I’m going to train, get ready for it, and put my best foot forward for the Asia Cup.”
Ramos says he’ll be flying to the United States soon to begin training for the FIBA Asia Cup.
“I’m going to go back to the States and train there. I’m just going to try and get ready. Right now, it’s about to be June, so I have about two months before the Asia Cup. I’ve got to plan out my training. That’s about eight to ten weeks. We’ll see what I can do in that time.”
In November, the qualifiers for the 2027 FIBA World Cup will begin, and Gilas will need to be at the top of their game after they were drawn into what experts are calling the Group of Death.
Once again, Gilas will face New Zealand, along with Australia and Guam.
“The World Cup qualifiers, we’ve got a tough group,” Ramos admits. “It’s just qualifiers. The goal is just to qualify. It’s not to win every single game. Obviously, we want to, but at the end of the day, you just want to qualify.”
The one constant, though, for Dwight Ramos ever since he got a Gilas call-up have been the Tall Blacks.
“For me, I’ve played with Gilas every year since 2020. Every year, I have to play against New Zealand. That’s tough. I always have to play against New Zealand. That was my initial thoughts. Why New Zealand again?”
Hopefully for Dwight Ramos and Gilas fans, they can repeat their historic November 2024 win over the Tall Blacks.
Banner Images from Kieran Punay (KLIQ Inc.)