Former Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tab Baldwin wasn’t shy to admit that he misses being with the national team, months after “stepping down” from his post to focus mainly on Ateneo de Manila University for the UAAP Season 84.
The decorated mentor said as much in Radyo5’s Power and Play with Kom Noli Eala Saturday, the first time he has spoken to the media since that major development on the eve of the Lunar New Year that indeed surprised many.
“I do. I miss those players. You know, I… there’s always dreams and aspirations that you have as a coach, and even though I’m an old guy and I’ve been around for a long time, I have dreams and aspirations related to Gilas,” he said.
What Baldwin really misses the most, though, was developing the younger players — and the “special things” they’ve all accomplished.
Photo by FIBA.basketball
“But what I really miss are the Carl Tamayos, the Justine Baltazars, the RJ Abarrientos, the Allyn Bulanadis, the Rey Suertes… I can go on. Special guys that I spent a lot of time with,” he said.
“We did some special things, and, you know, I miss them,” continued the American-Kiwi bench tactician.
“I miss them.”
Special, indeed, was the journey Baldwin and Co. had most especially in 2021, which undeniably brought a great promise for the program and its aspirations of building the best team possible for next year’s FIBA World Cup.
After sweeping the Asia Cup Qualifiers that included a pair of victories over rivals South Korea, Gilas came so close to upending world powerhouse Serbia in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade.
They would then play together once more in the King Abdullah Cup in Jordan, which saw them go all the way to the semifinals and finish fourth in a field that featured some of the top teams from the Middle East and Africa.
However, that proved to be the last time that the youth-laden batch would play alongside one another. Several months after that, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas practically hit the reboot button on the program.
Baldwin left the position and cited that he wanted to focus on the Blue Eagles for the collegiate wars’ return after two years due to the pandemic.
The federation then brought in a familiar face in Chot Reyes to man the helm. His term began in the World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers here and drew contrasting results as they won versus India and got blown by New Zealand.
And that humiliating 63-88 defeat to the Tall Blacks didn’t sit well with the fans, particularly those who went to watch live at the SMART Araneta Coliseum as some of them called for the 64-year-old to be reinstated.
Baldwin, though, has his sights locked in with Ateneo and the UAAP, and hopes that his decision will be beneficial for the Blue Eagles program.
“I would hope so,” said the three-time UAAP champion coach. “Certainly even if I had stayed with Gilas, I would have had divided loyalties, divided attention.
“For certain periods, I still would have focused on Ateneo because that’s actually my job. But putting my entire focus on Ateneo, I would hope that they have benefited from that.
“If they haven’t, I might have a hard time holding on to this job as well,” Baldwin added with a chuckle.
