After controversial start, things looking up for national program —and a wary Reyes hopes to ride momentum

Chot Reyes knew right from the jump that his return to the saddle of Gilas Pilipinas would not be filled with rainbows, butterflies and unicorns.

However, he did not expect that his fourth stint with the national team would put him through the wringer.

“When I took on this project, I knew it would be very difficult. We knew we would be exposed to a lot of criticism and everything,” he told the Inquirer by phone during a break from a family trip in Polillio, Quezon.

“When the offer comes, we have to think long and hard. I entered this with my eyes open, but if anyone is surprised by the violence and the spread of bashing and hatred,” he said.

Much of the trouble Reyes has had so far stems from Gilas’ series of disasters on the international stage—more than a year before the cage-crazed nation is set to host the 2023 Fiba (Federation of International Basketball) World Cup.

The gold is gone

One of them is looking at the more than three-decade stranglehold on the Southeast Asian Games gold medal that Indonesia captured in May last year. Two months later, Gilas failed to qualify for the knockout phase of the Fiba Asia Cup held in Jakarta, becoming the worst finish in the continental competition in 15 years.

More controversy plunged Gilas into an even more frayed country: Some of the program’s young standouts chose to ply trade overseas, while the Pros at home had a hard time doing it for the national cage program.

It also didn’t help that before all that, the Philippines appeared to be on an upward trajectory, having won twice against regional tormentors South Korea during Asian Cup qualifiers in Pampanga and valiantly faced Serbia and the Dominican Republic in Olympic Qualifiers. Tournament in Belgrade. “Fortunately, everything is starting to look up,” Reyes said. “We have started to play well [World Cup qualifying] window. Then Jordan Clarkson came in,” he said. Many problems were solved by an important June meeting between tycoons and basketball customers Manny V. Pangilinan and Ramon S. Ang.

Summit products

The product of that summit was Reyes’ reunion with the pro league’s winningest coach, Tim Cone, effectively bolstering Gilas’ bench. A meeting of stakeholders – featuring the two leading university leagues in the country – took place about a month later, resulting in the synchronization and alignment of events for the benefit of the national program.

This united front seems to be troubling the country’s lawmakers as well, as it hastily continued the process of naturalization of imported goods beloved by Barangay Ginebra, Justin Brownlee. America is now only a presidential sign away from being a Filipino.

“I think for all the negative things that went down, it was the stimulus that we needed to unite our basketball community,” Reyes said.

“Public opinion has calmed down. I think [resentment] died a little, but I also know that just one loss will bring us all back,” he added with a nervous laugh.

With the World Cup scheduled for August, Reyes chose to take the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas offer so that he could focus solely on Gilas.

“We have decided that I will resign from TNT,” he said. “But in terms of other plans, there is nothing more to share. We will only make an official announcement when everything is finalized.

The national team will resume training after the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Finals.

“We are looking forward to it [and] resume training Monday. Ginebra in the PBA Finals and [that team has] a large part of our players. We will just wait for it together with the guys in Japan and the injured people,” he said.

“All this has really been practice in adaptation, versatility and readiness. We want to prepare for the next window,” said Reyes about Gilas’ homestand against Lebanon and Jordan in February.

“But the big picture is August [this year]. Really focused.” INQ

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