Under fire has been the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas over the past few months.
And it’s because wins have been hard to come by for Gilas Pilipinas Men especially with the FIBA World Cup being just a year away.
For the calendar year, the Philippines has only accumulated three wins in 11 FIBA-sanctioned competitions — all coming from beating lowly India. Then of course there’s the Horror in Hanoi that saw Gilas Men’s three-decade reign in the Southeast Asian Games come to an end at the hands of Indonesia.
For pundits and fans, the root of Gilas Men’s problems stems from one thing — the firing of Tab Baldwin and the hiring of Chot Reyes as national team head coach.
SBP president Al Panlilio though shed light on what happened behind-the-scenes over the past few months in a rare interview with SEAG Network on Monday.
And for the sports executive, it was Baldwin’s decision to not coach the second window of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers that led to where the program is right now.
Tab Sits Out
With just a month before the Araneta window of the Qualifiers, Panlilio said that Baldwin and SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan had been in constant talks regarding his plans for Gilas.
During that time, the first batch of full-time Gilas players, namely Isaac Go, the Nieto twins, Rey Suerte, and Allyn Bulanadi, had already signed with their mother PBA teams. Meanwhile, Jordan Heading was able to find a loophole in his contract that led him to sign with T1 League’s Taichung.
All the UAAP student-athletes, meanwhile, were already locked inside their respective school’s bubbles in preparation for the UAAP.
Panlilio bared that it was Baldwin’s suggestion to have Reyes pinch hit for him for the window — a practice which was done during the start of this FIBA cycle that saw the likes of Mark Dickel and Jong Uichico become the national team’s head coach as well.
Unlike the past windows though, Baldwin was officially appointed as the head coach of Gilas shortly after the Olympic Qualifying Tournament-Belgrade.
“That conversation was between MVP and Tab. MVP did tell me and Ricky Vargas that Tab said to him that he won’t be able to coach for the February window and would rather focus on Ateneo at that time,” said Panlilio.
“That was quite alarming for me because it felt like he was supposed to be the program director and head coach of the team tapos bigla na lang one window hindi siya puwede mag-coach. So parang mahirap naman ata yung ganun.
“At the same time, he did recommend Chot could take over,” he continued.
On January 31, the SBP announced that Baldwin “stepped down” from his position completely and that Chot Reyes will be the new main man of the program.
Panlilio commended Reyes for stepping up to the plate.
“In fairness to Chot, he knew that he had no team during that window but still he took on the job because we asked him to do so. Pilipino siya and he can’t turn his back on the flag even though he knew it was going to be very difficult for him. It was admirable of Chot, knowing that he might face a massive backlash if he did not perform well. He still said that he will do it for the country. He said, you ask me to help you and I will. It wasn’t his doing,” Panlilio explained.
The program had to hit a reboot with a new coach taking over.
But according to the SBP chief, hitting the reset button should not have happened had it not for Baldwin deciding to sit out the second window.
“Honestly, the predicament that we are in today is because of Tab. We started losing players, he didn’t want to coach the February window, so as a federation we had to make decisions on how to move forward.
“I think he knew he had no team. He knew he had no team and had no chance of performing well after performing very well in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers. At the same time, he also had time to prepare for the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and everybody was in a bubble. Chot did not have that,” he claimed.
“First of all, he did not have players that’s why he brought in the TNT team to help out. It was a difficult time for the SBP because we did not have players, the coach said he could not coach the February window and rather coach in Ateneo, and we had to ask Chot to step in,” he furthered.
Chot Wanted Out
Since Reyes took over the job, a total of 36 players have suited up for Gilas Men.
However, it has not delivered the results resulting in comparisons between where the program is now and where it was just a year ago.
Reyes admitted that the criticism of him has become too personal to the point that he pondered resigning after the SEA Games.
“Of course, pinagiisipan ko yan especially with all of the things happening. It’s getting very difficult for me personally, for my family as well. Pati yung mother ko who is sick in the US, tumawag because she is worried,” Reyes said on Radyo5’s Power & Play last Saturday.
“Of course, I’d be dishonest to say na hindi ko yan pinagiisipan, especially with everything that is happening now. However, we are constantly in touch with the SBP and PBA leadership and they continue to tell me that they are fully supporting me. We also have so many plans in place that ang daming masisirang plano if hindi natin ituloy. If I continue to enjoy the support of the leadership of the SBP and the PBA, I just have to do my job.”
Panlilio though shared that Reyes had actually filed his resignation after the debacle in Hanoi.
The SBP though quickly rejected it, instead taking the blame for not giving Reyes the support he needed to succeed.
“He has [submitted a resignation letter] after the SEA Games but it is not his fault.
“I think there are a lot of issues that we have to address for him to support him even better. We did not accept his resignation and we are here to support Chot all the way now that Tim [Cone] is coming in, Nenad [Vucinic] also there, and also Goldwin [Monteverde] helping out,” said Panlilio.
On August 1, the SBP will hold a major stakeholders meeting.
Present will be the head of each of the country’s major leagues, the chiefs of every regional partner of the federation, and all the patrons that support them.
And Panlilio hopes that this will be a call to arms to support Reyes and the national team heading into the Worlds.
“If we can unify all the stakeholders of basketball to really support the program of Chot, that’s the best way for us. Mahirap din ang papalit palit and Chot knows what to do,” said Panlilio.
“Ang puso niya ay para sa Pilipinas at para sa bayan. It’s his commitment, despite all the issues and odds, for him to still commit as coach is malaking bagay yun.”
