Blatche, Chot almost got into fight
IT might have been a tense moment back then but former Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player and NBA veteran Andray Blatche can now just smile and fondly remember the time when he and national team head coach Chot Reyes almost got into a fight.
Speaking to the All-Stars podcast presented by Strong Group Athletics, Blatche, then 28 years old, shared that he and Reyes nearly got into it at the dugout during halftime of a tune-up game as part of Gilas’ preparation for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.
“Oh man, me and Chot almost got into it. Me and coach Chot were doing a tune up game and we were losing to a team that we shouldn’t have been losing to,” recalled Blatche, who’s now playing for the Strong Group Athletics team representing the Philippines in the ongoing 33rd Dubai International Basketball Tournament.
“I was playing like s*** and coach Chot came in the locker room and was just chewing me out nonstop. I got the point that he would not stop. He just kept going and was speaking a little bit of English and then Tagalog and then a little English. That’s why I even got mad because he was like ‘blablabla.’”
Pissed off with Reyes’ tongue-lashing, Blatche stood up, trying to assert his 6-foot-11 frame against the 5-foot-8 Reyes.
But that didn’t stop the decorated coach from doing what he was doing. In the end, the scolding only made Blatche and the whole Gilas team play better as they dominated that team which Blatche did not specify.
“I’m like ‘alright man’ so I stand up because I was getting tired of it and he was like, he’s sticking his chest out and said ‘come on, show us some fight, come on’. I’m like ‘this little dude is crazy, this guy is crazy’. But after that, we went out there and we kicked that team’s a**.”