Filipina baller Jack Animam to enter next year's WNBA Draft

Jack Animam is ready to make the big leap in her basketball career.

The Filipina basketball ace revealed to GMA News Online that she will throw her name into next year's WNBA Rookie Draft in her bid to compete in the world's most elite women's basketball league.

"Yes, [I will apply for next year's draft]," Animam said in a message on Thursday.

At 22, Animam has proven—and continues to prove—that she is made for the big stage.

The 6-foot-5 bruiser is currently suiting up as an import for Radnicki Kragujevac in the First Women's Basketball League of Serbia, where she consistently pours in huge numbers from both ends of the floor.

With Animam on board, Radnicki won four of its last seven games to sit within the upper half of the team standings.

Prior to her Serbia trip, Animam also shone in the US pro-am tilt, the Atlanta Entertainment Basketball League (AEBL), which followed her championship run with Shih Hsin University in Taiwan's University Basketball Association (UBA).

With Animam set to try her luck in the States anew, her mentor and Gilas Pilipinas Women's head coach Patrick Aquino said he's confident about Animam's chances of getting selected in the draft.

"I believe in her talent and competitiveness. But then again, the challenges of going there are really hard. She needs more good and impressive games and work more on her weaknesses so she can give her best in the draft," Aquino told GMA News Online.

"It would be best for Jack now to show the world she can play and represent our Pinay ballers to that level," he added. "I always say to her that all dreams are not given but you have to work for it and that's what she is doing right now."

Animam said, however, that she's still focused on steering Radnicki to the top for now.

"Right now, I'm focused on what I am doing and what's best for my team Radnicki," she said.

—MGP, GMA News