Chot Reyes pushes forward with Gilas next steps: Corralling PBA players, flying Clarkson in

Chot Reyes finally revealed cracks in the steely facade with which he faced a deluge of public vitriol lately.

But even with his emotions starting to show, the beleaguered national coach reached for cold logic and hard plans in discussing potential remedies for the recent spate of debacles suffered by Gilas Pilipinas in international meets.

“I don’t know what else to say except to say be patient,” he told reporters later in the afternoon after steering TNT past Converge in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup playoffs at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City, where calls for fans to wear black in protest of Reyes’ continued stay at the helm of the national program fizzled out.

“We’re in a transition,” Reyes said referencing the J-Curve, which refers to any of a variety of J-shaped diagrams—used anywhere from from politics to economics—where a curve initially falls, then steeply rises above the starting point. “[T]hings will get worse first … before it gets better beyond what it was.”

Qualifying windows

And to rush that steep rise of the curve, Reyes said he is pushing on with the national program’s plans for the next phase of the Fiba (International Basketball Federation) World Cup Asian Qualifiers, where the Philippines plays Asia Cup bridesmaid Lebanon on Aug. 25 and then hosts Saudi Arabia four days later.

The Philippines, as co-host of the global basketball showcase, is already qualified for the World Cup but is taking part in qualifying windows to prepare for the event.

The Inquirer learned that Reyes, with the help of PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, will be turning in a list of names that will compose the talent pool for those two contests in the league’s board meeting scheduled Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve previously talked to commissioner Willie about it. We’ve already given him a preliminary list of names who could potentially fill the pool. It’s not final, but at least these are players—mostly from the [early] eliminated teams—so they could tell their clubs ahead,” he said.

Reyes begged off from providing a number of players being considered for the pool in deference to the PBA leadership.

Gilas also intends to bring in Utah Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson as early as Aug. 15 so he can join the team in practices for the qualifying windows. The National Basketball Association (NBA) star, who last played for the Philippines in the 2018 Asian Games, will be fielded as a naturalized player.

“He has made himself available. He said he could come in and practice starting I think Aug. 15 for the next window. So now, I know the SBP (Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas) team manager, Butch Antonio, is talking to his management team to fix all the logistics to allow him and come and play,” said Reyes.

“[U]ntil he’s actually here, we can never be a hundred percent [sure]. Sometimes, there are players who are already signed and never actually arrive. So we can’t really be a 100 percent,” he added. “But right now we’re planning with him in the lineup—with Jordan Clarkson as part of the lineup.”

‘Not my style’

Reyes’ comments came at the heels of the scathing statements of SBP president Al Panlilio, who said in an online interview aired earlier in the morning that the tangle of mess the cage program is currently in—roughly a year before the Philippines hosts the Fiba World Cup—is largely because of former national coach Tab Baldwin.

The TNT mentor thanked Panlilio for his support but did not add fuel to the Baldwin fire.

“I don’t know if anyone of you has heard me speak ill about anyone. It’s not my style,” he said.

Still among the plans that Reyes hasn’t given an update on is the creation of the final pool for the 2023 roster. Gilas Pilipinas has continued to cycle through different lineup compositions with still no firm commitments from the likes of Kai Sotto, a 7-foot-3 center who recently tried his luck in the NBA, where he went undrafted.

Reyes has been the target of hate lately for the string of losses suffered from the national team, with calls for his resignation getting louder with each passing defeat. In fact, a petition on Change.org for him to quit his post has already garnered more than 3,000 signatures at press time.

And Reyes has met those calls with a mix of defiance and shoulder shrugging—until Wednesday night, when his emotions slipped past his guard twice.

“We’re trying to win. We hope we could’ve won more we have lost. But we’re making do with the cards that were dealt us, and that’s the only way how know how to answer that. That’s all it is,” he said.

“What you see is what you get. No other vested interest on my part,” he added, his voice cracking.

The mercurial mentor also revealed that he had, at one point, submitted his resignation, but the SBP did not accept it.

“I resigned but it wasn’t accepted. That’s all I can say,” Reyes said. “I have a job, I was given a job to do. It’s very, very difficult, very difficult for my family. But you know, somebody has to do the job. And I’ve always said before that I will never turn my back on my duty to flag and country.”