Coaches come and go

WHILE we were sleeping, coaches were shuffled like a deck of cards.

First off, Chot Reyes was lifted from TNT Tropang Giga to Gilas Pilipinas. Just right.

Why it took some time before that was done boggles the mind. As coach of both TNT and Gilas, the teams suffered, with TNT taking the brunt from the flawed setup. Chot took a rap, too. His divided attention had cost TNT a possible Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup trophy.

Jojo “Jolas” Lastimosa took Chot’s TNT post. Jolas has been struggling as he’s still learning the ropes. All * rookies undergo initiation rites.

A stunner was Topex Robinson’s departure from Phoenix, moving to De La Salle. Topex was not exactly a failure as the Fuel Masters coach. He couldn’t resist La Salle’s juicy offer? Or, as some pundits say, Topex didn’t get what he had bargained for at Phoenix? Whatever, Jamike Jarin had taken over and, like Jolas, he’s been grappling with novice jitters.

Next was Pido Jarencio, who finally said goodbye to Northport after such a long, albeit fruitless, stint as Batang Pier coach. Like Topex, Pido went back to school coaching after accepting the offer of University of Santo Tomas (UST). Pido had piloted UST to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines championship in 2006, beating Ateneo no less in the Season 69 Finals.

Bonnie Tan replaced Pido at Northport, bringing with him three straight National Collegiate Athletic Association titles as Letran coach in 2019, 2021 and 2022. But, like the rest of the PBA newbies, Bonnie is also adjusting to the vagaries of big time coaching: No walk in the park.

But Jorge Gallent seems to be the exception. In his first five games as San Miguel Beer’s brand-new coach, Jorge brought his foes to their knees like he was never the new kid in town.

The son of the former pelotari star George, Jorge’s initial display of genius caught everybody by surprise—but not Ramon S. Ang. Ang, who owns SMB as the flagship squad in

the three-team San Miguel Corp. troika to include Magnolia and recent Governors’ Cup champion Ginebra, did not think twice when Gallent was tapped to take over the reins from Leo Austria.

In Austria’s exit comes the harsh truth again that coaching is as unstable a job as a boat getting incessantly tossed by waves amid a storm. The only thing certain about the work is the certainty of its constancy: It comes and goes like the wind.

THAT’S IT

It’s been practically a week since Lebron James made himself the all-time scoring leader in the National Basketball Association (NBA), breaking fellow Laker Kareem Abdul-jabbar’s 39-year total of 38,387 points. James sank a fall away shot from 21 feet near the key with ticks left in the third quarter in the Lakersthunder game on February 8, amassing the required 36 points for a 38,388-point total that surpassed the mark held since April 1984 by Jabbar, who watched the game seated behind the Lakers’ bench at Los Angeles’ Crypto. com Arena. Jabbar would next join NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and a clearly emotional James on the court after the game was stopped following Lebron’s historic basket. Jabbar and James would hug each other after which James said, “To be able to be in the presence of such a legend and as great as Kareem, it’s very humbling. I never talked about being the all-time scorer in NBA history.”