THE Gilas Pilipinas men’s basketball squad will not be facing off against its longtime rivals from South Korea after the latter’s men’s national basketball team decided to pull out from competing in the 2023 Fiba World Cup Qualifiers.The Korean Basketball Association (KBA) held a meeting on Feb. 22 and eventually decided they weren’t going to fly to Manila anymore as another player on the team tested positive right before their flight. To make matters worse, the said player played during the team’s tune-up game against Korean University and did not wear a face mask during the entire match.The team was supposed to send Kim Sun-hyung, Lee Daesung, Heo Ung, Yang Hong-seok, Lee Weon-seok, Yeo Jun-seok, Doo Kyung-min, Byeon Jun-hyeong, An Young-jun, Lee Kwan-hee, Lee Seung-hyun and Jang Jae-seok.The ball is now in Fiba’s court on whether it would forfeit or move Korea’s games to a later date. The team was set to have a busy schedule in the World Cup Qualifiers at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Feb. 24-28. They were going to battle Gilas on the 24th before taking on New Zealand on the next day. They were then going to tackle India on the 27th before wrapping up their stint with another match against Gilas on the 28th.