No egos clashing in stellar Gilas PH bench

Combined, the three top coaches of Gilas Pilipinas have 42 Philippine Basketball Association titles.

Tim Cone, the Barangay Ginebra coach who sits as an assistant to Chot Reyes on the national team bench, accounts for a record 24 of those championships.

But there is no danger of Reyes losing his grip as the chief decision maker of Gilas Pilipinas even if one assistant has almost thrice his trophy count and another—Jong Uichico—who has as many titles as he has.

“We all get along extremely well,” Cone said. “Jong is super humble. He reminds me a bit of [Miami Heat coach] Erik Spoelstra, how humble he is. So we get along really well. I’m not the kind of guy who wants to put my imprint on things. I’m very willing to take the background and sit in the backseat.”

“We worked together in the last window. We don’t try to outdo each other. We just play our roles. We do our jobs and we give in to each other,” said Uichico.

The respect shared by the three is well-established that there’s no need to draw lines or put up boundaries around their tasks.

“There really is no designated specific roles [in Gilas coaching staff]. It just comes,” Uichico explained. “Coach Tim is more or less in charge of the defense. I’m in charge of the scouting. Josh [Reyes] is in charge of the offense. Then, of course, coach Chot is more overall. Without saying, we get to our roles just going with the flow. We just fill in the spots where we think we can help.”

Chot’s team

“I don’t need to be the driver,” Cone said. “I do a lot of driving with Ginebra and that’s a lot already. I’m very happy to stay in the background and lend support whenever I can. So I think it works out. It’s not just the three of us trying to be the man. We’re not. Jong is super humble and will never try to be the man. I’m not the kind of guy who’ll try that stuff either. This is really Chot’s team. We’ll just support him.”

Gilas Pilipinas was battling Jordan at midnight of Friday and is also scheduled to play Saudi Arabia next.in the ongoing window of the Fiba (International Basketball Federation) World Cup Asian qualifiers.

[M]y contribution is probably more on the defensive side. I pride myself in our own defense at Ginebra through the years,” Cone said.

“A lot of people think I’m the old guy and everybody’s learning from me, but no, I’m the one learning from them, truly.”

Smart, a global Fiba partner, will again stream the windows live on its GigaPlay App, which is available for IOS and Android. The stream will provide additional ways for fans to catch qualifying matches and is powered by what has been recognized as the country’s fastest mobile network.