A COMBINATION of a Filipino coach and a foreign consultant will be a ideal for Gilas Pilipinas, according to longtime naturalized player Marcus Douthit.
Douthit weighed in on the heated debate on the next Gilas coach, saying a Filipino should be named head coach and supported by a foreign consultant.
“I would love to see a Filipino head coach, but it would be better to have a foreigner on the bench that can give his advice and stuff like that,” said Douthit during the Extra Session podcast.
Douthit played for both a Filipino and a foreigner during his time with Gilas. He described Chot Reyes as a “master motivator” and Serbian coach RajkoToroman as a “perfectionist” and tough drillmaster.
The Philippines is still to name a full-time head coach although former Gilas coach and current Ateneo mentor Tab Baldwin has been holding the role of program director of the national team heading toward the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup.
Douthit believes that a Filipino should still be in charge of Gilas because of his knowledge of the players and the passion that he can bring to the national squad.
“I think having a foreign coach is great but I think having a Filipino coach as a head coach is better because they can kinda relate to the players and they kinda know them more … As far as head coach (foreigner), I wouldn’t advice that because they are going to go there and then try to move on to the next job.”
“I think the Filipino coach is always going to be there. He is going to learn from the best. At the end of the day, it’s the (say, an) American coach who can come in and advice and switch things around. But at the end of the day, you take each piece to the puzzle.
"But I think for the Philippines, you should always want a homegrown coach because it says something different. It’s just different because it’s more passion from someone who is from there than bringing somebody in,” said Douthit.
Having a Filipino coach doesn’t mean that a foreign coach should no longer be involved in the Gilas Pilipinas program, according to Douthit.
He said that the foreigner can still be part of the team as an assistant coach or a consultant.
“If you do bring in a foreign coach, you should bring him in to teach the Filipino coach so we can keep the knowledge in the country … Filipino coaches, they learn from a million different coaches so you got to take what you can get from each situation and make it your own,” said Douthit.
“Like a consultant, that makes a lot of sense. They respect the Filipino coach and they can learn from the foreign coach,” said the naturalized player, who played for Gilas from 2010 to 2014.
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