THE barber shop talk hasn’t died down: Why must Gilas suffer that 88-63 rout at the hands of New Zealand?
The Tall Blacks from Kiwi land were just six notches higher than us in the world basketball rankings, you know.
Just last year, Gilas lost by only seven points to World No. 5 in the Olympic qualifiers in Belgrade.
Chot Reyes had coached both Gilas teams.
And note that in Belgrade, Reyes had the luxury of having the country’s best of the best at his disposal.
Alas, against New Zealand on Sunday, Reyes had nothing but a ragtag bunch fit for an inter-color tournament.
OK, he was obliquely booed for the debacle.
But if you ask me, that crowd chant “We want Baldwin!” was not only misplaced but downright unfair to Chot.
I can understand the fans’ frustration. We are rabid basketball buffs. But that’s no reason to vilify Chot Reyes, who was stuffed pronto into the Gilas camp as a result of Baldwin’s chickening out to save his own hide.
Sorry, but Baldwin left Gilas for convenience. We should be clear on that. He couldn’t stand putting up with a team decimated by departures of some of its stars for high-paying jobs in Japan and elsewhere.
Reyes was, in fact, a hero for accepting a job that is almost doomed to being a lost cause. For now, at least.
Who would want to coach a squad severely lacking in depth and cohesion?
But a patriot that Reyes has always been, he took on the challenge. As he did in 2013, when he whipped Gilas into a world-class quintet by piloting it to Seville, Spain, to snap a 36-year absence for the Philippines in World Cup play.
He could have easily quit for good and rest on his laurels. But no, he unretired—basketball blood being in his veins the very day he was born.
“After a game, especially after a loss, we always feel we could have done a little bit better,” said Reyes in the loss to New Zealand. “Preparing certainly was very, very crucial.”
How could he fully prepare when Baldwin departed with the Fiba qualifiers just a breadth away from the starting blocks?
“We still have a lot of things to work on. The players are not yet familiar with each other,” Reyes said.
Just being honest. His crew were assembled barely days before tournament blast-off. And you expect him to defeat a New Zealand team that’s been formed long before the pandemic hit the world in March 2020?
Even if Baldwin was at the saddle in that fateful battle against the Tall Blacks, he couldn’t have possibly bailed Gilas out of trouble. C’mon, don’t be a jerk. Give me a break.
But amid the gloom, there’s hope.
“I think we will only get better as time goes by,” said Reyes. “Certainly a lot of bright spots…to build on. We just have to put in the work.”
For Chot, the war has just begun.
THAT’S IT We are sending 656 athletes to compete in 39 sports in the Hanoi SEA Games—a far cry from the 1,115 bets we dispatched for the Manila SEA Games. We won the biennial meet’s overall championship in 2019 with a haul of 149 gold medals, 117 silvers and 121 bronzes from 56 disciplines. But will world No. 5 pole vault ace EJ Obiena be able to defend his SEA Games crown on May 12-25? Olympic chief Bambol Tolentino said yes, unmindful of the fact that Obiena was not in the track and field delegation submitted by athletics president Philip Ella Juico. Suspense.