POINT OF DIFFERENCE DIVIDES BASKETBALL COMMUNITY,
PINOY FANS RALLY BEHIND COACH BALDWIN
To have a chance against world class teams, coach Tab Baldwin said a longshot like Gilas Pilipinas must learn to compete from a ‘point of difference.’
Under fire from the PBA and his statements disowned by his own association,Tab Baldwin found an ally in fans who picked up the cudgels for the former Gilas Pilipinas coach amid mounting anger from fellow coaches.
As project director of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), Baldwin is tasked to oversee the formation and preparation of the Gilas Pilipinas team that will compete against the world’s best teams when the country co-hosts the Fiba World Cup with Japan and Indonesia in 2023.
As co-host, the Philippines is guaranteed a spot in the draw. But to be competitive the home team can’t afford to do the same things that other nations far superior in both size and skills are doing, he said.
“So what is insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” Baldwin said. “Well, insanity in terms of trying to compete at the elite level is trying to do what your opponents do, with them having superior talent and experience, and expect to be able to compete with them or beat them.
“The big umbrella that governs what we do is the philosophy that a smaller nation in basketball terms, what I’m talking about there is as an underdog nation, a nation that doesn’t compete in the elite but wants to compete in the elite, in my opinion must develop a playing point of difference,” Baldwin added.
“So with that governing philosophy, it means we’re trying to look for something that will be a point of difference in terms of how we play.”
The veteran internationalist said it is vital that members of the Gilas pool go overseas to get exposure to world-class coaching and training. If a foreign coach is required to make the team better, we should hire one, Baldwin added.
“Our ability here in the Philippines to contribute to that is limited at this point, so we want to expand that. And that means both exposing our players to international training and competition and also bringing into our resources some coaches who have that understanding and that experience,” he said.
We need more exposure to coaches who are well-versed in elite level training, elite level tactics, and have coached players and other countries who have performed at these levels and developed to these skills,” Baldwin said.
Mighty Sports owner Caesar Wongchuking understands the rationale from both of Baldwin’s supporters and detractors, and to him, it only shows one thing: everyone’s passion for the sport.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) program director and concurrent Ateneo Blue Eagles head coach found himself in hot water last week for his comments, especially his statement on the apparent “tactical immaturity” of Filipino coaches which surprised him when he first got to the country in 2013.
Baldwin, who is also the head coach of Ateneo and program director of Gilas Pilipinas, was handed a PHP 75,000 fine and a three-game suspension for the comments he made during Tiebreaker Vods’ Coaches Unfiltered, presented by SMART last June 11.
Senator Dick Gordon went to social media to express his disappointment with the Philippine Basketball Association’s decision to punish TNT Katropa assistant coach Baldwin for comments, allegedly is “detrimental to the league”.#