Coach Tab Baldwin's real talk towards the PBA! - Full Transcript

In the Coaches Unfiltered show of Tiebreaker Times, coach Tab Baldwin, the director of the Gilas program, did not hold back.

His statements from that show are now the biggest topics in the basketball landscape of our country. Before I even consider tackling what he said, I first watched the show and transcribed what he said, specifically about the PBA and its imports.

During the show, he was with Mr. Paolo Layug, Mr. Anton Altamirano and coach Charles Tiu. 

Mr. Layug: ... What are some similarities and differences of Philippine basketball to other places that you have coached? Both in terms of playstyle and in terms of coaching... What is one thing with Philippine coaching culture that surprised you when you got here?

Coach Tab: I think the thing that probably surprised me the most is also the thing that annoys me the most. And I don't think that it is absolutely our coaches' fault. Which means its correctable. And I don't even think it is the hierarchy of coaches which I think bears some responsibility for what I am going to say but not entirely.

So, the biggest thing that annoys me and I think the biggest surprise to me is the tactical immaturity of Philippine basketball coaches. And... So what do I mean by that, I mean that.. that, they are significantly unaware of the tactical advancement and the systemic advance of coaches' systems coming out of Europe in particular. Which you know, ahhh.. are built on the back of player development.

So, our player development here is immature and our appreciation for... tactical advancement and tactical systems is immature. Now let me explain to you why I think that is not necessarily the coaches' fault... as an industry here...

We have one major major flaw in the basketball landscape of the Philippines and its a regulatory flaw. And that is in the PBA, we have three conferences. Two of those conferences are single-import conferences. This is a big mistake. We should never have a single-import play on the team. 

Further, we should never have a single-import that is given of all the rules-latitude that the import was given here by the referees and by the administration of the PBA and I do believe that it is based in the desire to have superstars. As a marketing tool for the PBA and of course, the imports that come here are so very outstanding players and they become superstars because of their statistical performance... so many.. examples, situations. 

So, I.. the question that this begs to me, why aren't these guys, superstars, in bigger leagues and leagues where they can play 10 months a year and earn, significantly greater salaries over the course of the year than they earn here? Why aren't they?

And the reason is they aren't given the regulatory advantages by the referees that they are given here. So, in other words, putting it on layman terms, a foul for a PBA player, or for a local player, isn't a foul on an import. 

And the foul of an import, that same foul on the local players, isn't a foul. So, our local players are competitively disadvantaged in their ability to compete against the import players. This is not the case in other countries. And you ask yourself why one PBA coach after another when they start their games, 48-minute games, they don't match-up the imports against one another. Why is that?

Well, it is tactically smart, tactically sound, because they can afford the fouls cause they know the import produce so much offense for their teams. but that's not so bad is the fact, and this gets back to my original point, gets back to the fact that if you are a PBA coaching you don't tactically run your systems through the import, you're pretty stupid! Because they are given all the advantages.

So, PBA coaches are smart lad. They are good basketball coaches. but they could be much better if they were forced to coach much more, I believed. I think then, they would show their real talents. But I think that, because of the way our imports are treated here, it is not sound thinking for a coach to not exploit what is obvious to every PBA coach and that is to run your offensive systems through your import. Because you get an extra-ordinary numbers of free-throws through the imports. You get an extra-ordinary number of easy basket opportunities through the import. And you get an extra-ordinary numbers situation, where the local players literally get out of the way of the imports. 

And so, you know, I think that system... It creates a fault landscape for our basketball coaches and our basketball players and I think it needs to change, sooner rather than later. 

Mr. Altamirano: Coach... when you say.. you're talking about the PBA imports, would you say that it same thing in college. For the student-athlete imports?

Coach Tab: Fortunately, I don't think it is the same. It may tend towards that a bit but I don't think it's the same and I don't think that UAAP.... needs a marketing tool. It is already a fantastic marketing vehicle by itself. So, I think that, the... on the fact of that. We don't see to the degree, imports being cuddled by referees.

I think, its there but I don't think it's big of a degree.