Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes. Photo from Fiba.com
One of the biggest realizations of Gilas Pilipinas from the 2017 Southeast Asian Games is that everyone else in the region has caught up in terms of level of competition.
Though the Philippines came away with the gold medal in men’s basketball, it faced a tall challenge from regional rivals like Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Coach Chot Reyes admitted that the Philippines should start developing its ranks from the ground-up, and it starts in the biennial games.
“We have to continue getting better, not only for our Southeast Asian opponents, but for Asia as well, and not only for Asia, but also for the world,” Reyes said on Thursday at the homecoming presser hosted by Chooks-to-Go at Marco Polo in Ortigas.
Four-time SEA Games gold medalist Kiefer Ravena echoed those sentiments, noting that unlike before Gilas couldn’t simply just turn it on when it wanted to against quality competition.
“Before, we could be lenient in practice and still expect to come out on top. But as they grow and get better, the task of getting a gold medal just gets harder and harder. For us with this type of program, we really have to have the dedication because we already know how tough the opposition will be,” he said.
But amid all that, the Filipinos vow to work and fight harder to keep the Philippines on top of the cage competitions in the region.
“No matter who’s in the lineup, we know that we’ll always give our all,” said Ravena.
“Every man in front of me will compete. It doesn’t matter if we have one day or one month to prepare, we’re all going to fight. That’s the message we have for these guys and it’s very consistent,” said Reyes. “We might be outplayed, we might be outmatched, we might be outsized, but we’ll never be outfought.”