NENAD Vucinic echoed the players' sentiments and defended coach Chot Reyes from the fans' criticism, feeling that those have already gone "overboard."
"Coaches have been used to those things but I feel that it's got a little bit overboard, going a little bit too much," he told Radyo5's Power and Play with Noli Eala on Saturday.
See Clarkson calls for end to all the negativity around coach Chot
Though no longer part of the Gilas Pilipinas program, the Serbian mentor also sympathized with Reyes who has been under the microscope since handling the national team program.
Nenad Vucinic calls on Gilas fans to calm down.
It couldn't be any more evident than last Monday when Reyes was consistently booed during Gilas' 84-46 win over Saudi Arabia at Mall of Asia Arena in the 2023 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers.
Those jeers have led to guys like Jordan Clarkson, Dwight Ramos, and Kiefer Ravena to come to the coach's defense, and Vucinic is no different.
The former New Zealand mentor understood the fans' frustrations on Reyes, and consequently the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP).
For Vucinic, however, he feels that somehow, the fans should accept these circumstances with the World Cup just less than a year away.
"I mean he can handle these stuff. Coaches that have been head coaches for a long time, you always take criticism, it's that always everybody knows what you should be doing," he said.
"But I feel that it just went a little bit overboard and it needs to really calm down from everybody now because he will be coaching the team and I think it is important now and it's good to see that some of the players came out and support him publicly. Hopefully the public will also be persistent in rallying behind coach as well."
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