PBA PHILIPPINE CUP FINALS

Magnolia coach Chito Victolero hopes to earn the respect of TNT's Chot Reyes: 'He's one of the coaches I really look up to'

Magnolia Pambansang Manok Hotshots head coach Chito Victolero is hoping to earn the respect of TNT mentor Chot Reyes, whose Tropang Giga team will be facing his own wards in the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup Finals starting Wednesday.

Victolero said he's actually both flattered and honored to be coaching opposite a legend such as Reyes, who is a holder of five PBA Coach of the Year plums and has been a fixture in the coaching circle.

But the 45-year-old tactician said it will be a big thing to get the respect of Reyes, whom he has looked up to ever since he kicked off his coaching journey more than a decade ago.

"Since I started coaching, he's one of the coaches I really look up to together with coach Yeng (Guiao), coach Norman (Black), and coach Tim (Cone)," Victolero said in the PBA Finals press conference on Tuesday.

"I have high respect for him and I'm very excited for this chance. This is a huge thing for me and hopefully, I will get the respect of Coach Chot in this series."

But Reyes assured that he already has plenty of respect for the Magnolia mentor.

He offered the fact that TNT patterned their game plan for their semis series against San Miguel after Magnolia's blueprint in a 100-90 elimination round win over the Beermen as proof of this.

"Contrary to what Coach Chito said earlier, I have huge respect for him and in fact, in case Coach Chito didn't know, we used a lot of stuff that you did in our preparation against San Miguel because we saw how well you played San Miguel," Reyes revealed.

"That's a huge measure of our respect for your coaching and I'm not afraid to admit it. Coach Chito has my utmost respect."

—JMB, GMA News