Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio made strong statements and claimed that it was former Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin who triggered the series of misfortunes in recent tournaments.
There has been an ongoing clamor among fans calling for current head coach Chot Reyes to step down and have Baldwin reinstated to the position – something that is now unlikely to happen after Panlilio pinned the blame on the former mentor for Gilas' recent debacles.
“Honestly, the predicament that we are in today is because of Tab,” said Panlilio during a rare interview with SEAG Live. “We started losing players, he didn’t want to coach the February window, so as a federation we had to make decisions on how to move forward.”
Baldwin’s Gilas team made a good account of itself during the Asia Cup qualifiers where it defeated South Korea twice while holding its own against world powerhouse Serbia and Dominican Republic in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
With Gilas losing its players ahead of the February window – the full-time players signing to their PBA mother teams, Dwight Ramos and others playing overseas and collegiate players returning to their schools in UAAP – Baldwin talked directly to SBP Chairman Emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan and decided to step back.
It was also Baldwin who recommended Reyes to replace him for the job as he intended to focus on Ateneo.
“That conversation was between MVP and Tab. MVP did tell me and Ricky Vargas that for the February window, Tab said to him that he won’t be able to coach for that window and would rather focus on Ateneo at that time," he shared.
"That was quite alarming for me because I felt like he was supposed to be the program director and national head coach of the team tapos bigla na lang one window hindi siya pwede mag-coach. So parang medyo mahirap naman ata yung ganun," he added.
That leaves the federation with no other recourse but to tap Reyes who, according to Panlilio, did not turn his back to the call of national duty despite knowing that he’ll be receiving criticisms anew if he fails to perform well with the limited resources.
“In fairness to Chot, he knew that he had no team that February window and I think he had only six players during that time, but he still took on the job because we asked him to do so. Pilipino siya and he could not turn his back on the flag even though he knew it was going to be very difficult for him," he said.
"It's really admirable of Chot knowing that he might be facing a massive backlash if he didn't perform well, but he said, 'I will do this for the country. You asked me to help you and I will.' But it wasn't his doing."
With Reyes at the helm, Gilas hasn't won a single game against other countries except India during the third window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers and the FIBA Asia Cup 2022.