Castro, known as "Jason William" to his opponents in the FIBA Asia Championships, was named to the tournament's Mythical Five after an impressive campaign that saw him use his speed and shiftiness to blow by past his defenders.
Known fondly as "The Blur" by Filipino fans, Castro scored 17 points in the semifinals against Korea to spark Gilas, then had 18 points on Sunday against Iran.
Joining Castro in the Mythical Five is South Korea's young shooting guard Kim Mingoo, who torched Gilas for 27 points Saturday night and scored 21 Sunday to power his team's rout of Chinese Taipei.
Chinese Taipei's Lim Chih-Chieh also made the cut, along with Iran's Oshin Sahakian, who had a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds tonight against the Philippines.
Rounding out the Mythical Five is Iran's 7-footer Hamed Hadadi, who was easily the most dominant player in the tournament. Against Gilas, he scored 29 points and grabbed 16 rebounds as he exploited the absence of naturalized player Marcus Douthit.
Hadadi was also named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, and he acknowledged that Iran's quarter-final loss in the 2011 edition of the tournament was a primary motivation for him this year.
"I was waiting for this championship. I think about the loss to Jordan (in 2011), and I watched it 10 times, 20 times to see what happened in the game," he said.
"It was a great tournament. We started strong and until the end, we focused. On each game, we come and play defense," Hadadi added. "Today we did not play so good in the first half, but in the second half we played better and better, and we won the game and got the championship."
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
