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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider With Chot returning to Tropang Giga, PBA comeback 'a no brainer' for Kelly Williams

With Chot returning to Tropang Giga, PBA comeback 'a no brainer' for Kelly Williams

Published Apr 25, 2021 03:59 pm
Kelly Williams (Photo from PBA)

Kelly Williams said the return of coach Chot Reyes had a major influence in his decision to make a comeback with the TNT Tropang Giga.

Williams had been pondering on reversing his earlier decision to end his 13-year PBA career when TNT decided to tap Reyes back in a bid to regain its winning ways.

It didn’t take long before the 39-year-old Williams signed a two-year deal with the Tropang Giga.

“With Chot coming back, for me it was a no brainer,” Williams told former PBA commissioner Noli Eala on the latter’s Power and Play program.

The interview was the first time Williams gave his candid thoughts on a series of events that started in September when he decided to hang it up, much to the surprise of TNT management.

He admitted that there were some disagreements between him and management and the initial decision was aimed to avoid the situation to get worse.

But Williams realized that the move didn’t sound well from an outsider’s perspective, and he eventually reached out to TNT to address the situation.

“Looking back, there was a better way to go about it and maybe even salvage the situation,” Williams said.

“For the next several months, I have to deal with myself and do internal work and just try to move forward the best I can and not harbour any bitterness and anger towards anyone because the franchise and the company has been nothing but great to me for the last 11 years.

“At the time, I just made an emotional decision, a really rash decision like my back was against the wall. And obviously, with the pandemic and dealing with all these stuff, it didn’t help the situation,” he added.

Things got clearer when he received an Instagram message from a long-time teammate about Reyes’ hiring.

“I got a message from Ryan Reyes and it was like 3 a.m. or so in the US, and the text said ‘Chot’s back. Are you coming back? Haha.’ I said, ‘Yeah right, Chot’s not back.’ Then he said, "check the news,'” Williams recalled.

“I checked my Instagram because that’s where I get news about current events, and I definitely checked my messages and there was one from Chot saying, “Are you coming back?’ And I was like, s___, this is for real.

“From that minute on, I started kinda weighing everything up like ‘Alright, let’s see how we might be able to do this.’ So 100 percent with Chot coming back, that really pushed me to the edge.”

Related Tags

Chot Reyes Kelly Williams TNT Tropang Giga PBA Philippine Cup pba
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