Loberternos: Chot Reyes and the Dunning-Kruger Effect
By Reylan Loberternos
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 25 Jul 2022
Chot Reyes.
The Dunning-Krugger effect is a cognitive phenomenon where a person believes that he is smarter or more capable than he actually is. It is a cognitive bias wherein a person overestimates his knowledge and competence in a particular domain, subject, or field of expertise.
Gilas Pilipinas, right now, is at the crossroads. Fresh from dismal performances in the 2022 Southeast Asian Games and the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, it is torn between keeping the status quo or making drastic changes. Its head coach and concurrent program director Chot Reyes, however, remains steadfastly defiant and seemingly unperturbed.
Though this exceptional display of blind optimism may be admirable, Chot’s utter disregard to calls for him to step down and his apparent lack of self-evaluation are quite worrisome. He may be blind to his own incompetence. The illusion of superiority has led him to overlook others’ well-documented expertise and international success.
Don’t get me wrong. Chot Reyes is a very good coach… PBA coach, that is. He’s won the most Coach of the Year awards and has accumulated numerous championship trophies as well. Yes, that should count for something.
But international basketball is a completely different animal. Chot is basically a novice when compared to the likes of Rajko Toroman, Nenad Vucinic, and most especially Tab Baldwin. Apart from being battle-scarred and internationally acclaimed, what do these three coaches have in common? Chot Reyes was the exact same person that immediately replaced each one of them, on separate occasions, as head coach in this Gilas Pilipinas saga.
You may read back on the Gilas Pilipinas history or read a previous piece I wrote for Spin.ph to see how Chot fared in each of those stints, including this current one. On each occasion, our national team made a subtle turn for the worse.
Make no mistake about it. Chot isn’t solely to blame for this string of Gilas debacles. SBP, its governing body, ought to take much of the flak, along with Smart Communications honcho Manny V. Pangilinan, as well. It’s quite obvious that their corporate and commercial interests take precedence over the success of the national team.
Insisting on having Chot in these crucial positions as head coach and program director after repeated failed attempts at improving the state of Gilas basketball is nothing short of stupid. Can you imagine the complete trust they have bestowed him that he gets to do this while also taking the cudgels as the full-time head coach of TNT in the PBA? Stupidity is doing the same thing all over again and expecting a different result.
Now, they’re floating the idea of having Jordan Clarkson, and perhaps Kai Sotto, in the upcoming qualifiers next month. What perfect timing! Do these people really think that the Pinoy basketball fans are so naïve and too gullible to just shrug things off with these diversionary tactics? The Pinoy fans’ patience and tolerance have undoubtedly reached their boiling point.
It isn’t the player composition that’s the main issue here. It is, without a shadow of doubt, the head coach and program director that’s keeping us from where we want to be as a basketball team. It is his is system, or the lack thereof, that has made our players look overmatched, inferior, and lost.
You cannot fool a Pinoy basketball fan. Basketball is our national pastime and an avid Gilas fan can easily differentiate good basketball from a bad one. Chot Reyes has done all the talking… but the best thing he can do at this point in time is to simply listen. He needs to step down. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but trust me, it may very well be the most patriotic thing he’ll do for his country. The Pinoy basketball fans will certainly appreciate him for that.
SBP, in its latest press release, calls on stakeholders to unite… to come together in supporting the Gilas national team with the goal of forming a competitive squad for the FIBA World Cup next year. I say, the first step towards unity is for Chot Reyes to acknowledge, once and for all, that he is not the man for the job.
There’s still time… it isn’t too late. Let’s all hope that Tab Baldwin keeps his telephone lines open.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Reylan Loberternos.
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