Alaska had openly shied away from loaning players to the Pilipinas-Smart Gilas national developmental team.

But Joe Devance wants to show patriotism by serving his country.

The 6-foot-7 forward expressed his desire to play for the national developmental squad being handled by Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman.

A former top overall rookie pick and one of Alaska’s marquee players, Devance revealed his willingness to play for Pilipinas-Smart Gilas through his Twitter account.

“I hope I do get a chance to play for Gilas. It would be a great opportunity for me to play under coach Toroman and serve my country," added Devance.

But Alaska has an official stand when it comes to loaning players to the national team.

“We’ve served the national team before, so we want to pass up on having to loan players to the national team. We want to focus on our PBA campaign," said Alaska team owner Wilfred Uytengsu at a rare meeting of team owners and board governors last January.

Devance, twice a strong candidate for the Best Player of the Conference award last season, is included in the wish list of PBA players whom Toroman wants to reinforce his young squad.

Also included in the list are Devance's teammate Sonny Thoss, James Yap of B-Meg Derby Ace, Asi Taulava and Sol Mercado of Meralco, Kelly Williams, Jimmy Alapag and Ryan Reyes of Talk N Text.

The PBA and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas have agreed on the loan of five professional players for the national developmental team’s campaign in the FIBA Asia Championship in September.

The FIBA Asia Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics.

“Joe (Devance) is one of the players whom I want to include, but it seems Alaska is not interested in loaning players at this time," said Toroman in a previous interview.

Rey Joble, GMA News TV