Clarkson on Pacquiao: ‘Can’t beat him in boxing or in chess’

If Jordan Clarkson had it his way, he would play for the Philippine men’s national basketball team in a heartbeat.

But considering current circumstances, that may not happen ever.

“It’s definitely something I want to do. Everything just kind of didn’t work out —the FIBA rules, all that stuff,” Clarkson said in a radio interview posted on the Cleveland Cavaliers website on Monday.

“Hopefully it comes out soon and I’ll be able to suit up.”

Two things have primarily held back Clarkson’s dream of suiting up for Gilas Pilipinas — one, he didn’t acquire a Philippine passport before turning 18 years old, a requirement by international governing body FIBA, which means he would have to be naturalized in order to join the team.

And, two, even if Clarkson went through that process and were naturalized, the new spread-out international calendar, which coincides with the NBA season, would make it difficult for him to get permission from the Cavaliers to play for the Philippines.

The newly acquired Cavaliers guard touched on several interesting subjects in the radio interview, one of which was the time he met up with Manny Pacquiao.

“We played chess, man, for a long time at his house. I think we went through 2, 3 boxes of like KFC chicken,” Clarkson recalled.

“That’s why I stayed there for long ’coz I tried to beat him, but it didn’t work out for me.

“You’re not beating him at boxing or in a chess match.”

The radio hosts asked Clarkson whether he and Pacquiao had a chance to shoot some hoops and what Clarkson thought of Pacquiao’s game.

“I think we gotta go and work on his jump shot a bit,” Clarkson said.

(For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.)