MANILA – In a surprising move ahead of the 2021 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup next month, Rain or Shine Elasto Painters have elevated assistant coach Chris Gavina to be their new head coach.
In a social media post on Monday afternoon, Gavina will take over the coaching chores from Carlos “Caloy” Garcia, who will remain with the team as an active consultant and head of Rain or Shine’s basketball operations.
Rain or Shine co-team owner Raymond Yu said in an interview with the PBA website on Monday that the coaching changes were made to address “the new landscape of basketball.”
“Coach Caloy will take care of the macro and see and find ways on how to improve the team while coach Chis will take care of the micro, which means he’ll be calling the shots in the game and preparations of the team,” said Yu.
Yu added that Painters management also took into consideration Garcia’s involvement with the Gilas Pilipinas as part of its coaching staff in coming up with the decision.
“We considered his long-term involvement with Gilas and we don’t want it to be a distraction, so we have to make things workable for all of us,” Yu said. “We were thinking, hanggang 2023 pa ito. So baka mag-cause ng maraming disruptions sa team.”
Garcia, who was with the franchise since the team’s Philippine Basketball League days, said he welcomes the new challenge.
“We support the management’s decision. For me, this is something new and a new challenge, but at least I’m still connected with basketball and with a much bigger role overseeing the day-to-day operations of the team,” Garcia said.
Gavina, who was a former interim coach of Mahindra Floodbuster (now Terrafirma Dyip), said he accepted the challenge of his new role and is looking forward to making innovations for the team in the upcoming PBA Rookie Draft.
“One good thing about this organization is we’re like a family, so when I was appointed head coach of the team where I’m already a part of was easy to accept. We’re a playoff contender, but we look forward to winning championships in the future,” said Gavina./PN
