{"id":26240,"date":"2014-09-18T16:57:49","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T08:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=26240"},"modified":"2014-09-18T18:01:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T10:01:48","slug":"chot-reyes-were-going-to-practically-die-in-asiad-to-make-filipinos-proud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/09\/18\/chot-reyes-were-going-to-practically-die-in-asiad-to-make-filipinos-proud\/","title":{"rendered":"Chot Reyes: We\u2019re going to practically die in Asiad to make Filipinos proud"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from Smart-Gilas Pilipinas official Facebook page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes does not want to make any promises to the team\u2019s fans, except for one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not in the habit of making promises. We didn\u2019t make any promise going into the Fiba World Cup except for the fact that nobody\u2019s going to try harder,\u201d said Reyes on Wednesday<\/span>. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be the same thing. We promise the Filipino people, everybody here tonight that we\u2019re going to practically die to make everyone of you proud that this is the team that\u2019s representing you,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The national team left for Spain with modest expectations, but end up finishing with the country\u2019s first win in 40 years. Now, they are preparing for the Asiad games despite Andray Blatche\u2019s disqualification.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-11 naturalized Filipino was declared ineligible to play for Gilas because of a three-year residency rule in Asiad. Blatche averages 21.2 points and 13.8 rebounds during the Fiba World Cup. His absence will definitely be felt by the team.<\/p>\n

Replacing him will be Marcus Douthit who also helped the country secure a play in the Fiba World Cup in 36 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just ready to fill in the void that my team needs,\u201d said the 34-year-old Douthit.<\/p>\n

For Reyes, he believes that team effort is vital in filling the space left by Blatche.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe in any single person trying to fill the shoes of anyone person. Every man in this room, in this team has to come in and do his part and play his role because this is more than a one-man team,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about who\u2019s not here. Our only concern is getting the best from everyone that\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Blatche, Jayson Castro will not be able to play as well because of a strained Achilles, whereas Jared Dillinger and Marc Pingris both have calf and ankle injuries, respectively. However, Dillinger and Pingris will try to play but will be out of form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe injuries have really taken its toll on us and I\u2019ll be very honest we\u2019re not going to be 100 percent going into the tournament in the Asian Games. But hey, whoever gave us a chance in the World Cup anyway,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n

For the past years, the national team learned how to make the circumstances worth to their advantages despite setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not new to us. Being in front of almost impossible odds is not new to us so we\u2019ll just keep fighting and then let\u2019s see what happens,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n

No other team will try harder than the Philippines, he promised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes does not want to make any promises to the team\u2019s fans, except …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[7437],"class_list":["post-26240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gilas","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}