With Bennie Boatwright nearing his Filipino citizenship to become a Gilas Pilipinas player, excitement has begun to build up not only for the fans but for the San Miguel import as well.

The 6-foot-10 center, who is expected to provide the size, shooting and versatility to the national team, is now one hearing away before his naturalization papers get transmitted to the Office of the President to be signed into law.

“I think I have one more hearing, one more meeting to go and hopefully by then I can be naturalized,” said Boatwright who had to attend the Senate hearing in the morning and play in SMB’s game against Terrafirma in the evening.

And should the timeline work to Gilas’ favor, Boatwright could even be available for the Nationals’ bid for back-to-back titles in the Nagoya Asian Games where he would join SMB teammates June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez.

“For sure, I'm definitely looking forward to that,” said Boatwright.

“Definitely, I’ll do my best to help out, win another championship but one step at a time, I need to get naturalized first and then we go,” he added.

Boatwright, however, admitted that the thought of donning the Gilas jersey is already thrilling him, more so, sharing the court with current naturalized player and Ginebra resident import Justin Brownlee.

“I heard you’re gonna have two imports, me and Justin, playing together that would be exciting,” he said.

Although nothing has been final yet, initial reports indicate that the Asian Games organizing committee is only requiring passports to consider a player eligible for the continental meet.

It was pretty much the same rule applied during the last edition in Hangzhou where Gilas fielded both Brownlee and Ange Kouame.