The passion and purpose to coach were the deciding factors for Chot Reyes to consider and eventually accept the offer to return as coach of TNT Tropang Giga in the PBA.
Reyes said that it was through this principle that he lives as a coach in the PBA, national team Gilas Pilipinas, and – even away from the spotlight of the big league – as a mentor for business leaders.
“My entire life… my passion has been coaching and building teams, whether in sports, or whether in the corporate world,” said Reyes as he appeared Monday on the new online show Brewed Awakening by Kick-Start Coffee.
“My purpose in executive business and executive coaching practice is to help develop the next generation of Filipino leaders, and I feel that purpose can be served better and advanced more by being on the platform that the PBA provides, on a big platform such as the PBA.”
Reyes said that even after his last coaching job with Gilas back in 2014, and after a brief stint as an executive with TV5, he regularly talks to telecommunications mogul Manny V. Pangilinan.
In their recent conversation, however, Reyes said he was surprised that he was offered to return to coach TNT – a team he handled and won four of his eight PBA championships from 2008 to 2012.
Reyes said it took a few days for him to decide.
“I had to seek the advice and the thinking of my family, my wife Cherry, my kids,” Reyes said.
“We kind of have settled into a very good rhythm now with life outside of professional basketball coaching, with coachcom.ph, with the things I’m doing in the executive business and coaching field.”
“In the end I was thinking, there is a lot of stress, pressure and risk in taking the job. But my question… does this fit right into my sweet spot of passion and purpose, and when the answers to those two questions were yes, I said yes… might as well.”
“I decided to go back to the hot seat. That was the thought process,” he added.
Reyes, a five-time PBA Press Corps Coach of the Year winner, technically replaced Bong Ravena as coach of TNT, even if it was active consultant Mark Dickel who calls the shots for the Tropang Giga the past two years.
He said he has requested the management for Dickel to stay as consultant, while Ravena and his son Josh Reyes are still with the coaching staff.