Professional Coaching Career
He was one of Earl Timothy Cone's assistant coach during the early 90s with the Alaska Milkmen. In 1993, Reyes was hired head coach of the Coney Island Ice Cream Stars, now known as the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants. In his first conference, he led the Ice Cream Stars that was bannered by Alvin Patrimonio and Jerry Codiñera to a 4-2 series win over the San Miguel Beermen to win the All-Filipino Conference, creating history by being the youngest coach to win a championship in his first tournament at age 29. This feat led him to win his first Coach-of-the-Year award. In 1994, he again led the Purefoods to the Commissioner's Cup title over the Alaska Milkmen with Kenny Redfield as import.
Reyes spent two more seasons with the Purefoods franchise before he was hired in 1997 by the Sta. Lucia Realtors. That year, he led the Realtors to a third place finish in the All-Filipino and two respectable fourth place finishes in the Commissioner's and Governor's Cup.
However, he left the team in 1998 to join the newly-formed Metropolitan Basketball Association. During his short time, he introduced some innovative yet criticized rules such as the Free-Three, the 23-second shot clock, and the eight second backcourt rule. Two years later, however, FIBA adopted the eight second backcourt rule which is in effect today, both for the international and pro game. After a while, he became the assistant coach of Tim Cone for the Philippine Centennial Team that went home with the bronze medal in the 1998 Asian Games.
In 2000, Reyes became the new head coach of the Pop Cola Panthers, spending two seasons there. After a frustrating first season, he led the Panthers to a third-place finish in the 2001 All-Filipino Cup, with a rebuilt lineup of Rudy Hatfield, Johnny Abarrientos, and Poch Juinio. The Pop Cola franchise was then sold to food conglomerate San Miguel Corporation and was renamed as the Coca-Cola Tigers. The SMC management retained Reyes as coach and that year he led a Tigers team, depleted with the injuries of Abarrientos and Jeffrey Cariaso, to the 2002 PBA All-Filipino title - again creating history by being the first team in the PBA's history to win a title in its rookie year. Again, this feat led to Reyes' winning his second PBA Coach-of-the Year award. In 2003, he led Coke to three successive Finals appearances, winning the Reinforced Conference championship with Artemus McClary as import. This in turn led to his third Coach-of-the-Year award, thus becoming the only coach to win 3 COY awards thus far.
Read more about this topic: Chot Reyes
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