Gilas Pilipinas Coach Chot Reyes took full responsibility for the disastrous performance of the Philippine National Basketball team at the FIBA World Cup.
It can be recalled that despite being one of the hosts of FIBA and the full support of the Filipino crowd, Gilas Pilipinas remained winless in all of their games.
Experts considered it the poorest performance of the Philippine Basketball team for decades.
During a press conference, the apologetic coach said that they’re supposed to show the result of their ‘learning experiences’ during the World Cup.
“I’ve already said I’m really sorry that we were not able to deliver and I take full accountability. I take full responsibility,” said Reyes.
“This was a time for us to win, to execute the learning. It was supposed to happen way back. This was a time for us to win and execute and like I said, we didn’t get the job done,” he added.
He also admitted that the morale of his players was so low but they still need to prepare for their final match against China.
“Our job is to get everyone ready now for the next game, and that has to start with our mindset and our emotional hearts as well. We just like to say that as difficult and as disappointing the campaign has been so far, I’m still very proud of the effort,” he said.
Reyes said that the decision to remove him as Gilas coach was up to the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) chaired by Manny V. Pangilinan.