Why Gilas Pilipinas HC Chot Reyes is booed by Filipinos: A timeline / News - Basketnews.com

Former Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin mysteriously resigned after a successful run. The new head coach, Chot Reyes, has been booed by Filipino home crowds ever since.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes was booed by the Filipino crown before the game against Italy at the Araneta Coliseum on Tuesday. The team's biggest star, Jordan Clarkson, called it weird. What's the story behind it?

Philippines / Schedule

Dominican Republic Philippines87-81 Philippines Angola70-80 Philippines Italy83-90 South Sudan Philippines87-68 Philippines ChinaSat12:00

The timeline begins in 2021. At the time, American specialist Tab Baldwin was the head coach of the squad.

At the time, Gilas Pilipinas were on the rise. They went undefeated in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. They had a competitive game against the tough Serbian national team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade in the summer of 2021.

With the 2023 FIBA World Cup hosted in the Philippines, the country was looking forward to the qualifiers for the event. In January 2022, it was suddenly announced that Baldwin had resigned.

A few days later, Chot Reyes, a former coach of Gilas Pilipinas at the time, took over the job.

The main reason for this sudden change - the deteriorated relationship between Baldwin and the Philippine Basketball Federation (SBP).

"You know, I would say strained over the last six months," Baldwin described the relationship with SBP in September 2022.

Baldwin had caught flak in 2020 when he made a controversial statement about his Filipino colleagues.

"The biggest thing that annoys me, and I think the biggest surprise to me, was the tactical immaturity of Philippine basketball coaches," Baldwin said during a podcast in 2020 when comparing his experience coaching elsewhere to the Philippines.

The comment was highly criticized both by the SBP and the local coaches. Despite the statement, Baldwin was largely liked by the public due to promising results.

Following the coaching change, Gilas Pilipinas lost two of the first four 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers games, getting handily defeated by New Zealand both times.

They finished just 9th in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup in the summer. After a series of disappointing results, SBP president Al Panlilio blamed Baldwin for it.

"It wasn't his (Reyes) doing. Honestly, the predicament that we are in today is because of Tab. We started losing players. He didn't want to coach in the February window. As a federation, we had to make decisions on how to move forward," he said.

Not even a month later, Jordan Clarkson was officially recruited as a naturalized player and started representing Gilas Pilipinas in August. Led by Clarkson, the Philippines earned the right to play in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

Despite this fact, the public support for Baldwin, who now works as a Gilas Pilipinas youth coach, remained. Meanwhile, Reyes was booed by the home crowd in August 2022.

The current coach - Chot Reyes - has garnered criticism from the local media for the team's play in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Being 0-2 and with no chance to advance to the Second Round, the local Filipino crowd booed Reyes.

After welcoming the tournament with a promise to play in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Gilas Pilipinas have lost the chance to directly qualify for the grand tournament following a loss to South Sudan.

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