Lassiter career has now gone full circle with Asiad gold

Marcio Lassiter’s path to Philippine basketball began with the national team. So despite an aging frame and even after tabbing a historic Asian Games gold medal, he will always be ready to answer the call of flag and country.

“It’s what allowed me to be here in the Philippines. I started playing through the national team. I didn’t do a route that most Filipino-Americans did,” he told the Inquirer recently.

“I told myself my heart is here—that I belong in the Philippines. And what better place to do [basketball] than for the national team? There is always no question,” he went on.

Lassiter was part of the original Smart Gilas squad put together over 13 years ago. He has been a part of many other editions of the national team and has found himself in many highs and lows with the program.

He found the peak of those highs during the Hangzhou Asian Games earlier this month after helping a hastily assembled national team deliver the Philippines’ first basketball gold in over six decades.

Lassiter was among the five last-minute replacements for Tim Cone’s crew, coming in for an equally prolific shooter in Roger Pogoy, who begged off from the continental showcase due to a medical condition.

“This was one of the hard ones,” he said of his Asiad call-up, which came just days before the contingent flew for China. “It was right after the PBA Draft. I was pulling my kids to bed … and then Al Chua told me about the whole (Pogoy) situation, which was just unfortunate.

“Though it didn’t take me long. I just had to tell my wife and the kids that I’ll be gone for just a little bit. I knew in my head I had to come out mentally and prepare myself for anything—which is something I hold myself to [through the years]: Staying ready every day.”

A certified winner with nine titles with San Miguel Beer in the PBA and three medals at the Southeast Asian level, Lassiter said that nothing compares to representing the country—regardless of the end result. INQ