Your wish is my command.
Chot Reyes is basically like this one guy I knew back when I was still playing DOTA in a computer shop near UST. When he plays well after consecutive losses and wins the game for his team, he quits. You can’t even persuade him. He just wants to either go home or go to a place with beer.
Like I said, just like Chot Reyes.
Here’s the thing – we qualified for the Olympic Qualifiers. I know we are going to face stiff competition but we got one of two Asian spots because we had a better run as compared to China.
GILAS PILIPINAS’ WIN/LOSS RECORD: 1-4
VERSUS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: 81 – 87 – WE LOST BY 6 POINTS
VERSUS ANGOLA: 70 – 80 – WE LOST BY 10 POINTS
VERSUS ITALY: 83 – 90 – WE LOST BY 7 POINTS
VERSUS SOUTH SUDAN: 68 – 87 – WE LOST BY 19 POINTS
VERSUS CHINA: 96 – 75 – WE WON BY 21 POINTS
CHINA’S WIN/LOSS RECORD: 1-4
VERSUS SERBIA: 63 – 105 – THEY LOST BY 42 POINTS
VERSUS SOUTH SUDAN: 69 – 89 – THEY LOST BY 20 POINTS
VERSUS PUERTO RICO: 89 – 107 – THEY LOST BY 18 POINTS
VERSUS ANGOLA: 83 – 76 – THEY WON BY 7 POINTS
VERSUS GILAS PILIPINAS: 75 – 96 – THEY LOST BY 21 POINTS
More importantly, the 19th Asian Games will start on September 23 and it will be held in HANGZHOU, CHINA! You can expect dim sums, hot pots, roasted ducks, stir-fried porks, and all the hometown cooking we can get because of how we double-damaged this loss for them.
Not to mention that we are one of many countries who are battling for West Philippine Sea supremacy.
Again, we can’t forget about politics here.
But then, Chot Reyes threw something that we expected... but we never knew he’d pursue it at this stage in the Gilas program.
This is his “pakyu” moment.
Apart from making Chot Reyes the scapegoat of every Gilas loss, you can’t help but think this is a vindicating moment for him. For starters, he is the only coach to win games in the FIBA World Cup since 1978. He did this feat twice. The final win resulted in Gilas Pilipinas’ win over China and if SBP accepts his resignation, he’s going to walk away with a win.
And finally, he is going to leave the coaching chores to a person that might go insane in this “once in a lifetime” position.
The fact of the matter is being a Gilas Pilipinas coach is toxic as hell. Reyes’ hair is all white now and Jong Uichico is as well.
Uichico is the coach of the 2002 squad that lost Jimmy Alapag to a devastating injury in preparation for the tourney (although Ron Jacobs was the coach at that point), placed tremendous stress on Ron Jacobs that unfortunately caused his near-fatal stroke, also lost to Danny Seigle to a devastating injury in preparation for the tourney, and two missed free throws from Olsen Racela and a buzzer-beating triple from Lee Sang Min later... started our hatred for the Korean basketball team.
For Tim Cone, it has been 25 years since the Centennial Dream Team finished third in the 1998 Asian Games after losing to Korea by 20 and losing to China by 9. Cone said in interviews that they zeroed in on China and that they took Korea lightly.
With the BAP mess causing the country to miss the 2006 Asian Games, Rajko Toroman led the likes of Chris Tiu and the rest of the inaugural Smart-Gilas squad to a sixth-place finish. Chot Reyes would lead the team to a seventh-place finish after a sensational FIBA World Cup run in 2014. And because of the Gilas Pilipinas versus Australia melee, Yeng Guiao and Jordan Clarkson would lead a hastily completed core of mostly Rain or Shine players to a fifth-place finish.
Cone escaped the critics back then but it’s probably because the internet is in its infant stages. Also back then, the biggest stake was the Asian Games with the PBA at odds with the BAP, and qualifying for the FIBA World Cup (then called ABC) as well as a spot in the Olympics was almost next to impossible. Toroman also escaped all the hate because the team was made up of Asi Taulava, Kelly Williams, Solomon Mercado, and a bunch of kids who, apart from Marc Barroca, JV Casio, and Marcio Lassiter, had average PBA careers.
I think I can see Cone or Uichico as the most obvious choice, given that the Asian Games is more or less, three weeks away as of this writing. But these guys also had a hand in whatever Chot Reyes was doing in the FIBA World Cup. You cannot convince me that they cannot tap Chot Reyes’ shoulder to call for a timeout when the Dominican Republic was making their shots and Jordan Clarkson and Dwight Ramos were taking ill-advised shots and making bad decisions. You also can’t be convinced that Chot Reyes wouldn’t listen to a two-time grand slam coach and a coach that has the same number of championships as him in the PBA. As far as decisions, you can see that Reyes improved his coaching stance in the next four games. Yes, his main focus was still to give Clarkson the ball and let the rest of the team beg for a pass but this has also improved during the South Sudan and China games.
While I am not saying that Chot Reyes is the ideal coach, he should at least stay for the Asian Games.
Because here’s the thing – all the shit that everyone is saying about Chot Reyes is just a smokescreen to the current problem the Gilas team has.
In the current Gilas setup, Ramos, AJ Edu, Kai Sotto, Kiefer Ravena, Rhenz Abando, and Clarkson are playing in the international leagues. I know Justin Brownlee is going to replace Clarkson but with the injuries to Jamie Malonzo, they could either go with a PBA guy like Chris Newsome or an international guy like Bobby Ray Parks or Thirdy Ravena. The Asian imports might be available now but there might be a chance that we’ll miss out on their services come the Olympic Qualifiers.
Maybe I am looking at the very distant future... so I’ll focus again on the Asian Games.
The Asian Games might be a tourney that doesn’t have any Olympic implications but it’s also a tourney that’s going to have the winner trash-talk the hell out of its other Asian brothers. China has won eight of the last eleven tournaments with South Korea taking the other three tourneys. The last time we won was in 1962 and the closest we’ve ever reached the gold medal was in 1990 when Robert Jaworski coached a core of mostly Ginebra and San Miguel players.
Winning this is going to be a significant boost for basketball in the country.
And oh yeah, it’s not like Tim Cone is going to give up his Ginebra coaching spot for Gilas.
How about Tab Baldwin?
First of all, the next worst thing from learning a dated or ineffective coaching system is learning a new kind of system just a few weeks away from the event. And then, there’s preference. Baldwin isn’t keen on using PBA players. It’s either he’s going to assemble a new team or play the current team that he may or may not like. One player left out of the conversation is Ange Kouame. Alongside Dwight Ramos, he’s a Baldwin guy. This is again a problem because one thing Chot did well here is that he made AJ Edu a localized version of Kouame. But then, Chot packed size and missed out on the brainy PGs. Does this mean we’re going to see the return of RJ Abarrientos and SJ Belangel as well as the likes of Thirdy Ravena, Kobe Paras, Jordan Heading, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, Isaac Go, Matt and Mike Nieto, Justine Baltazar, Juan Gomez de Llano, and Will Navarro with weeks left in preparation?
My biggest beef in the whole Gilas Kids phase is that the PBA players outmatch them and the rest of Asia don't fear them. While yeah, the international players are doing their thing but just because a player is in the international leagues doesn't mean they are that good. Sometimes, the reason why the foreign teams are getting them is because their top choices are unavailable. Matthew Wright, Kiefer Ravena, and Robert Bolick are examples of pro players that are signed in other leagues after their contracts are up while players like Kobe Paras, Baltazar, and Ricci Rivero are either free agents or hellbent on applying for the PBA Draft.
But then, the other thing about Baldwin is his yearning to coach this ghastly position. Last year, he wanted out because most of his reliables were busy playing in the overseas leagues. In some ways, the whole player-to-overseas concept happened during his time.
On paper, Chot Reyes had to return because Baldwin wanted out ASAP. Now, one could speculate that this is an SBP move but one can also say that his ego is also making things worse.
Yes, the PBA needs to change to favor the development of its players. I think they need to draft the kids as early as when they reach at least 19 or 20 years and if the teams aren't using the player, then they can come back to their collegiate schools to develop their skills. My comparison to this is AJ Edu and Kai Sotto searching for opportunities in their early 20s while most NCAA players are going to graduate at age 25 and up. How can the PBA develop the next set of international bets if their rookies are batshit old? When I was doing plugs for the NCAA Juniors Division, I was surprised at the skills of Andy Gemao, Seven Gagate, and Luis Pablo.
I think Chot Reyes needed to go but I don’t think he needs to go NOW.
The Asian Games is just around the corner. Yes, one of his deputies might take his spot, but what if this "chaos" could lead to other things?
The same play of letting Jordan Clarkson shoot the ball and let the others beg for it is the same play that gave Gilas Pilipinas that monumental third-quarter run. You’re probably going to get the same thing from Justin Brownlee. I guess the main difference between Clarkson and Brownlee is that JB knows the players more.
With that said...
GILAS PILIPINAS’ WIN/LOSS RECORD IN 2014: 1-4
VERSUS CROATIA: 78 – 81 – WE LOST BY 3 POINTS
VERSUS GREECE: 70 – 82 – WE LOST BY 12 POINTS
VERSUS ARGENTINA: 81 – 85 – WE LOST BY 4 POINTS
VERSUS PUERTO RICO: 73 – 77 – WE LOST BY 4 POINTS
VERSUS SENEGAL: 81 – 79 – WE WON BY 2 POINTS
Chot Reyes finished with a -21 point difference in 2014 and he finished with a -21 point difference in 2023.
As mentioned time and again in this blog, he’s a polarizing figure. But how quickly we forget that at a time when we thought all of our games were going to be blowouts against the best of the world, he led our teams to a bunch of almost wins.
He needs to stay away from the Gilas basketball program... or at least stay on in an admin capacity that wouldn’t give a shit about the coaching system.
With that said... I guess the players could ask Reyes to stay on up until the Asian Games.
Because troll or not, the players have the right to choose their coach.