Chot Reyes endured a lot of social media animosity when he took over the Gilas head coaching job from Tab Baldwin in 2022 and was pilloried for failing to retain the Southeast Asian Games gold that year. Reyes never volunteered to replace Baldwin but a lot of fans had the mistaken notion that he maneuvered to grab the job. The hate was intense and the negativism was uncalled for.
Blinded bashers pounced on Reyes for supposedly insisting on employing his patented dribble drive offense even when he had long abandoned it. They mocked him for saying every defeat was a learning experience when it actually was, conveniently forgetting he won the 2012 Jones Cup, brought the Philippines back to the FIBA World Cup after 36 years, clinched the Philippines’ first FIBA World Cup win in 40 years, regained the SEA Games gold in May last year and booked a FIBA World Cup win at China’s expense via a 21-point blowout in September last year. Not to mention his six PBA Coach of the Year awards.
Reyes stepped back from Gilas after last year’s World Cup and returned to TNT as head coach in the Philippine Cup last season. Alas, it wasn’t an eventful comeback. TNT didn’t make it to the Final Four and was bundled out by Magnolia in the quarterfinals. But Reyes held on and in the recent Governors Cup, was back on the throne with his 10th PBA title.
Reyes, 61, said winning his latest PBA crown was no redemption because it wasn’t about him. However, he admitted some kind of vindication. “This was about the team, not me,” he said. “My family has gone through rough times because of the adversity I faced and it was painful. This championship was different from the others, the circumstances were different but the stress was the same, the pressure was the same.”
Going up against Ginebra head coach Tim Cone in the Finals was a challenge. They know each other so well. Reyes was Cone’s assistant at Alaska and with the 1998 Centennial team and Cone was his assistant with Gilas. The Finals played out like a chess match between grandmasters.
Reyes said he lost TNT’s advantage in depth when Cone started LA Tenorio and brought Joe DeVance off the bench in Game Three. He countered by starting Kelly Williams in Games Five and Six, both of which TNT won, with JP Erram as reliever. “When Kelly was out and Poy was still not 100 percent, we went with a small lineup,” said Reyes. “RHJ (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson) and Glenn (Khobuntin) were our bigs playing center. We held our own. We were comfortable with our tested lineup. But in the Finals, we knew we had to get the most out of Kelly and Poy so we talked to them, explaining how important their roles were.”
As the series extended, Ginebra couldn’t match TNT’s long rotation. DeVance sat out the last two contests and Tenorio didn’t play in Game Six. Ginebra held an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter of Game Six but went scoreless in the last 4:57 as TNT detonated a 12-0 bomb to close it out and wrap up the series with a flourish. Cone said he was sad that Ginebra lost but happy for Reyes who has finally silenced his critics at least for the moment.