MANILA — Head coach Chot Reyes has gotten all the blame for all of Gilas Pilipinas’ 2023 FIBA World Cup struggles.

The long-time Gilas mentor, who first served as the national team’s head coach in 2005, announced that he is "stepping aside" from his post shortly after their last game in the tournament against China.

But how will this decision affect him and the team as they move forward post-World Cup?

• FIBA: After win over China, Chot to 'step aside' as Gilas coach
• FIBA: Gilas saves best for last, crushes China to close World Cup campaign

In an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Sports’ Migs Bustos, Reyes went on to clarify his statements, as well as provide an insight on what the future holds over the things that he can control.

Bustos: “Can you define stepping aside?”

Reyes: ”I’m retiring from coaching the national team, Gilas, and I am stepping aside to allow the federation, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), to have a free hand to appoint the next coach.”

The TNT Tropang Giga mentor then went on to share how his players reacted, as well as the SBP’s plan of action with his decision.

Reyes: “I think the first one to react was Jordan Clarkson because he was there. But I think, like you said, medyo expected na din 'yun. I don't think the players were surprised already because even in the lead-up, I kept telling these players, let's play this China game because it is very important for you (the players) and for their own careers.

“I kept telling them [to] don't worry about me. I’ll be fine. I think meron na ring idea mga players. As to what their reaction was? I don’t know. Halos ‘di na kami nagkita after the game. We went our separate ways.”

Bustos: “Reaction ng SBP?”

Reyes: “I haven't spoken to Manny V. Pangilinan. They are just encouraging me to take as much time to make time for my family. They are working double time na to find a new coach.”

The long-time PBA tactician then went on to give what happened during their practices and preparations en route to the FIBA Worlds.

Bustos: “August 18 nabuo ang team. Prior to that, ano ang preparation?”

Reyes: “We knew we were going to struggle. We are very happy with our performance, and the China friendlies, and if you will notice, 'yung laro namin sa China is very different from laro namin sa World Cup.”

“We knew we were going to have 25% of the team come in fresh. Who were not in China? that's Jordan, Kai [Sotto], and Scottie [Thompson]. We knew there would be an impact on the fluidity and execution.

“A lot of criticism was around. Why is the offense like that? Bakit ang gulo? We knew we were going to struggle, that was not going to be as smooth. That’s why we worked hard to do certain things to mitigate that. That’s why you notice, even with all of those struggles, turnovers, we were still in every ball game that we lost. Even South Sudan, we brought it down to four points, and that's really a testimony to the resilience and the fighting character of the players.”

Bustos: “Expectations? Sa mga games like Dominican Republic?”

Reyes: “We knew we were competitive. We knew we were going to give any team a run for the money. A lot of the disappointment is because those were winnable games daw na ‘di na-close out, so they attribute it to me.”

“But they don’t attribute the fact that we are close in the first place to the head coach. Siguro may kinalaman ako doon maski onti,” he added.

Bustos: “Game surprises?”

Reyes: “Not really. I think, different games, different scenarios. Sa Dominican Republic, if JC didn’t foul out. If there is a surprise for me against Dominican Republic is how badly officiated that game was. It was a badly officiated game. The fact that somebody punched June Mar [Fajardo] went uncalled for. For me, I would have expected FIBA to have better referees for there to be better-officiated games. I think the third, and fourth foul of JC was... There were a lot of questionable calls”

Bustos: “How would you sum it all up?”

Reyes: “I think it was, I thought if you would ask me, Team Philippines played a lot better than the previous 2019 campaign. We even played and finished better in 2014. In 2014, we finished 21st out of 24 teams, now we placed 24th out of 32 teams. Now, we performed better than those two World Cups. However, we did not deliver the goal to advance to the second round or win the outright Olympic qualifying spot.”

“On that measure, it was a failure. We improved from the last two, but it fell short of the result I was hired to achieve and for me, if you fail to achieve the result for which you are hired then it is right for you to step aside,” he added.

Bustos: “You mentioned that tapos na learning experience, but in the Philippine basketball landscape, talaga bang ito na dapat? Talagang manalo na? Or do we need more time?”

Reyes: “Okay naman lahat. Here, everything was planned in the best preparation possible for this World Cup. We cannot anticipate the injuries. The biggest blow was Justin Brownlee, Scottie din, Roger Pogoy, the biggest was their availability because we wanted sana, with JC, everyone to be in by July 25.”

“But when we found out he couldn't come earlier than August, then we are trying to mitigate that can we be the ones to go there kami na pupunta sa America to train with him kung hindi siya makaalis sa US. Remember, we came from Europe, then we went to China, so we couldn't get the logistics together to get us visas in time.”

“So that's when we had a plan na maybe si JC, derecho sa China so one more game with him. More time as a team, but nagka-issue. They couldn't get a Chinese visa because they’re in LA, and need pa pumunta Washington,” he added.

“These things happened behind the scenes. In the end, we had our first practice on August 18 against Cote d'Ivoire in a tune-up match. Even on August 17, Kai wasn't able to practice so imagine, on August 18 kami complete team. Team USA, August 3 nagpra-practice na. Kami August 18, one week before our first game.”

Still, Reyes took all the blame despite these factors.

“You never heard me point fingers. I take full accountability. That's the way things are, may injury, availability,” he said.

Bustos: “Criticism sa rotation, valid?”

Reyes: “You have 110 million coaches. The easiest thing to do is post-game coach.”

“It is easy [to see] what went wrong. For example, why did Kai Sotto didn’t get more playing time? Sino iuupo ko? si AJ [Edu]? June Mar [Fajardo]? You tell me, 'pag sinabay mo yung tatlo, iuupo si Dwight [Ramos] or stay si Dwight, upo si Jordan.”

“It is easy to post-game coach. The public, everybody else will have their opinions. I have no problem about that. In the end, we played all those tough teams despite all our handicaps.”

“We put ourselves in a position, and against these kinds of teams, this level of competition, when France didn't even make it out of the eliminations, and even teams made of NBA players like Australia, number one team Spain didn't even make it, so lakas talaga ng competition.”

“I think the public is forgetting kung gaano kalakas, nalimutan nila dinikitan natin lahat sinabayan natin lahat”

Bustos: “Nag level-up ba Pinas?”

Reyes: “I think. And that should be a source of celebration instead of being a source of despair or hatred of people. I thought I understood everyone's disappointment kasi winnable.”

He then shared his future plans after this tournament, while also telling his message to all the Filipino fans.

“Play more golf. Have a vacation, spend time with family, and get ready to come back to TNT.”

“Again, I would like to apologize for coming up short in my mandate here to be the best-placed Asian team so we could qualify for the Olympics. We performed better in the last two World Cups, but in the end, it was not. And for that, I take full accountability.”

“However, I am very proud of our team and our players because they played their hearts out, and in the end, we are very true to our promise that no one tried harder,” he added.

“Like I said, we fought until we couldn't fight anymore,” he ended.