NEWLY-crowned PBA Philippine Cup champion Talk N Text was not exactly built to win a championship in coach Chot Reyes’ return after an absence of six years.

Reyes was simply focused on building a team and its values.

But hard work and long hours of preparation under Reyes and the coaching staff put the Tropang Giga in position to win all the way to the coveted championship.

And win they did.

“It’s not really a secret formula of winning, but we believe everybody in the team worked and prepared the hardest for this bubble tournament,” said Talk N Text assistant coach Josh Reyes during the 126th edition of the “Usapang Sports on Air” by the Tabloids Organization in Philippine Sports (TOPS) via Zoom last Thursday.

“If you put in the hard work, the most effort, you can really put yourself in a position to win. Kami ang may pinakamaraming bubble training camps na twice a day. Sa umaga, takbo sa beach or sa sand dunes sa Ilocos around 6 a.m. After that, practice sa hapon,” added Reyes during the weekly public service program sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and Games and Amusements Board (GAB).

“The first thing that Coach Chot did was to focus on building the team, building the values of the team and each player. He did not focus on winning right away. Sa simula pa lang, the players were given time to talk and speak their hearts out. We worked hard but we did not really focused on winning. We focused kung ano ang meron kami, yung mga piyesa namin sa team and building a family. We started talking about winning basketball games later on.”

Asked about the unenviable task of beating three multi-titled San Miguel Corporation teams on the way to the title, Reyes said it was not easy.

“Every championship is special in its own way. It was special to us not because kung sinong teams yun tinalo namin, but on how our team came together and played together,” stressed Reyes.

“Like I said, hindi yung championship ang una naming pinag-usapan coming into the conference. We really just focused on building. If you noticed, yung mga unang games namin sa conference, parang hindi dominating or championship contender kami.”

“So yun hype na tinuhog namin yun three SMC teams, hindi namin inisip yun. We won’t be in our right minds to say na gusto namin kalaban Ginebra or San Miguel or Magnolia. But slowly but surely, we build up to the point na we became confident only when we reached the semifinals. We started to look at the big picture and know that we can actually win it all.”

“That’s what made it really special. Yung how the team came together and how we finally ended our six-year title drought. Sa mga beterano nga sa team, they almost felt like na may curse na kami against San Miguel Beer. So it was a huge accomplishment to beat these great and talented champion teams. Nag-uusap nga kami kung paano namin tinalo ang team na yun (San Miguel).”

Beating Ginebra, San Miguel and Magnolia also presented different challenges, according to Reyes.

“Knowing Ginebra and Coach Tim Cone, they always peaked at the right time. Historically, talagang pumapalo sila sa playoffs, even though they look struggling in their regular season or the elimination round. Against Ginebra, we knew that it won’t be easy. Kaya kahit nga lamang na kami ng malaki, we did not let our guards down and relax. Ginebra yan.”

“The series against San Miguel presented the biggest challenge for us, lalo na we did not have Kelly Williams at that time due to health and safety protocols. It was bad timing for us that our starting center would not be available at the start of the series against a team which had the best center in the league and all time in June Mar Fajardo.”

Added Reyes: “Coming into that, we just talked lahat ng pinagdaanan sa buhay ng mga players namin bago sila dumating sa team, gaya kay Poy Erram at Dave Marcelo. So, kung yung mga hirap na pinagdaanan nila na nalagpasan nila, yung series against SMB mag-ba-basketball lang naman. After the talk, nawala na yun mga fears and we were able to focus on playing basketball. It was a series with a lot of adjustment and we were able to adjust well against them (Beermen),”

Talk N Text’s championship opponent, Magnolia, proved to be another difficult challenge.

“If you go through history, maraming teams na ang inisip champion na after beating a strong team in the semis. It’s very dangerous. So we tried our best not to think like that against Magnolia. We know Magnolia had the better record than San Miguel for a reason. This team is very capable and can kick our butts out. We can’t afford to relax against them so we did not relax at all until the final buzzer.” With reports from Gab Ferreras