Odd couple Taulava and Tautuaa gets Gilas’ chemistry going

Asi Taulava (left) said Gilas got closer during its recent trip to Estonia. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Three weeks since coming together, Gilas Pilipinas is making great strides towards chemistry.

The team just wrapped up its last practice Thursday night before flying to Taiwan the next day for the Jones Cup. And as the press scamper for interviews, players are showing how much comfortable they are in fooling around with each other, even with cameras and recorders in front of them.

Take Moala Tautuaa, who asked one reporter to interview him with Asi Taulava.

“I was gonna interrogate him [about] why he’s such a bully. We got to sit here and talk about our problem because he obviously has issues with me. I don’t know what I did to the old man, to lolo, super lolo,” Tautuaa said trying not to burst into laughter.

And then, the madness ensued, with the two Fil-Tongan big men trading barbs and calling each other out.

“You’re Little Rock! I’m the Big Rock, the Super Rock!,” exclaimed this year’s top rookie pick to the 2003 MVP, who quipped right back, “I’m The Rock. That’s Pebbles.”

Though winless in the 2015 Toyota Four Nations Cup in Estonia, the trip to Europe did bring something greater in the eyes of coach Tab Baldwin – chemistry. And the players acknowledge that.

“Our first two weeks together, everybody was going through adjustment period,” Taulava explained. “We were all getting to know each other. I was with the first batch, Gilas 1, and some of the guys are from Gilas 2, and then all the new guys. We see everybody trying not to step on each other’s feet. Everything changed when we went to Estonia. We got the chance to be around each other.”

Estonia definitely did the trick. Tons of selfies, Dubsmash videos, and of course, Taulava taking covert photos of players sleeping hit the Internet to document Gilas’ journey overseas.

“It got us super close. I guess that’s what Coach Tab wanted he wanted the chemistry. He wanted the bonding with the guys,” Taulava said.

Tautuaa chimed in right away, “It’s starting to backfire now because we talk too much now.”

“But that’s what he wanted. He wanted all of us talking,” Taulava continued. “That’s why when we’re not talking on the floor, Coach Tab says, ‘if you guys can talk the way you guys talk off the court on the floor, we’ll be a better team.'”

“We don’t try to overshadow them. We don’t tell them to keep quiet. They’re not afraid of us or anything, so when we shoot jokes, they shoot jokes right back. And it goes back and forth,” Taulava

“Coach sometimes is wondering what the heck is wrong with these guys? Don’t they shut up? You got Gary (David), Dray (Blatche) who goes around telling jokes like whenever it’s Gary time. Everybody has their moments.”

With the team set to compete in its first full tournament at the William Jones Cup starting this weekend, who knows how crazy this bunch of players can get – and how much their chemistry can grow.

“Just imagine how much this team is gonna get after going to Taipei for 10 days,” Taulava wondered.

“Ten days and we’re gonna be out there? Oh my goodness, good luck to the hotel cause we’re all in each other’s rooms. No locked doors, that’s the rule.”