You know he wears his heart on his sleeve. You know he’s a decorated coach. You know all about his Thom Browne suit. You know his dribble-drive offense.
If you think you know everything there is to know about Chot Reyes, well, you thought wrong. It’s a safe bet to say that you haven’t seen Coach Chot cuss at a player in ways that would make Yeng Guiao feel like a proud dad. Well, the secret is out.
On a recent episode of the Let it Fly podcast, wherein Reyes was the guest, Gabe Norwood and Jarred Dillinger looked back on a couple if incidents wherein they went all out, exchanging expletives with their former Gilas Pilipinas mentor.
Gabe’s story began in his first-ever Gilas camp, particularly during a tune-up game in Serbia.
“End of the first quarter comes, I get a penetrate-and-kick to me in the corner. It’s like two seconds (left) and I go to shoot it. And it was one of those like I got a seven-footer closing out and I dropped the ball and got called for a travel,” Norwood recalled.
“Our bench was on the opposite side, he (Reyes) meets me before half court, completely cussing me out. I get defensive, I started cussing him back at him,” he added with a laugh.
It turned out to be a pivotal moment in Norwood’s relationship with Reyes as the athletic swingman soon found out what the six-time PBA Coach of the Year awardee wanted out of him.
“In the heat of battle, I sat down for maybe a minute. Coach Chot turns right back around and puts me right back in the game,” the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters star remembered.
“For a young player to realize that this guy expects a lot out of me, I need to expect that out of me too. I need to hold myself accountable,” explained the George Mason University alum.
Dillinger had a similar encounter with Reyes. In one of Gilas' games during the 2012 FIBA Asia Cup in Tokyo, Japan, the 6-foot-4 forward was struggling mightily, which compelled the veteran coach to go on the offensive.
“Coach called a timeout and he lets everyone know, ‘Don’t pass to Dillinger, he doesn’t want to f*cking play today.’ I get back in the game, I’m trying to show him. We’re literally yelling in the middle of the game like F you, F you back,” Dillinger said.
Like what Coach Chot did with Norwood, he benched Dillinger for a minute and reinserted him again into the ball game. The Daredevil started to click, which only prompted him to go at Reyes even more.
“I go back in and I started playing well. And I ‘m still cussing at him. ‘I told you, F you!’” Dillinger hilariously remembered.
“Siya pa galit. Nagkakalat na nga, siya pa galit,” Reyes responded while bursting out in laughter.
At the end of the day, Norwood and Dillinger expressed their gratitude and admiration toward Reyes. Why wouldn’t they? Even cussing matches with Coach Chot result in a learning experience.
(PM)