Gilas taps ex-Jordan coach to help Chot

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas pulled a surprise, tapping Tab Baldwin to beef up its think tank just before the start of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship.

Baldwin, the architect of Jordan’s second-place in the Wuhan joust in 2011, surprised many in showing up at the Mall of Asia Arena yesterday with Gilas assistant coaches Norman Black and Jong Uichico.

Baldwin was in the same shirt worn by the Gilas coaches.

“I’m with them unofficially,” Baldwin told The STAR.

“He helped us in New Zealand and we invited him over,” said Josh Reyes, son and one of those serving as assistants of Gilas head coach Chot Reyes.

Baldwin, holding a clinic for the Filipinos in Napier, New Zealand on July 5-15, flew in from Auckland Saturday.

He had been in Asian basketball circle for about four years, holding the rein at Jordan as it upset Iran in the quarterfinals in Wuhan in 2011.

Baldwin and his Jordan team later crushed the Philippines in the semifinals and narrowly lost to China in the finale.

A year earlier, the Jacksonville, Florida native piloted the Lebanese national team to the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup title conquest.

He has since returned to New Zealand, his base since the 90s and from which he was made an honorary officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his great achievement engineering the Tall Blacks’ semifinal finish in the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis.

Having made the rounds of Asian basketball in 2010 and 2011 with great success, the 55-year-old coach can well dissect the games of the Asian powers for Gilas Pilipinas.