FILIPINA American guard Chanelle Molina revealed that she wants to play for the Philippine women’s national basketball team “when the time is right.”
In an Instagram Live interview with FilAm Nation Select on Tuesday, February 16, she said: “I get asked this question a lot, you know if I will ever play for the Philippines. When the time’s right I feel like I want to represent the country, my country.”
Last week, Molina signed a training camp contract with the WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
The 5-foot-9 guard acknowledged that the opportunity also meant that she is representing the Philippines and all the girls aspiring to play basketball professionally.
“I’m representing the Filipino community and all those aspiring who wanna play basketball. I get a lot of messages from little girls, and they’re always like, ‘You’re my idol.
Represent.’ Just all that,” said Molina.
She added, “It’s bigger than basketball, for sure. Representing the Filipinos, and all the little girls aspiring to wanna be in my position. I’m glad that I’m representing them.”
Molina, who was born in Hawaii to Filipino parents, played college ball for Washington State for four years.
She was rated as a five-star recruit by ESPN in 2016.
In 2020, she went undrafted despite averaging 12.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game in her four-year stint at Washington State.
“[Connecticut Sun] actually called me beforehand, and they were thinking about drafting me. So I was like, kind of in their list of people to draft,” Molina told FilAm Nation.
“I had really high hopes of being drafted by them. Come draft day and I don’t hear my name getting called,” she added, admitting that there was “a lot of disappointment, a lot of sadness, anger, a whole mix of emotions.”
According to her, signing a training camp contract with Indiana Fever is a chance to prove Connecticut Sun “wrong.”
Currently, Molina is averaging 18.1 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in the 15 games with the Dolphins this season.
