Happy Birthday, Gilbert “Jun” Reyes ( June 19 )

Happy Birthday, Gilbert “Jun” Reyes

Source : Assorted Magazines (PBA Archives Collections)

1990 PBA Rookie Draft 3rd overall pick
8x PBA champion as player
4x PBA champion as assistant coach
1996 PBA Grandslam champion
2x UAAP champion
2x UAAP MVP

GILBERT REYES
In the finals of the Maharlika Cup, Game 1 specifically, Gilbert Reyes, Jr. stole the thunder from starting Magnolia Ice Cream guard Ferdinand Pumaren, by providing the spark enroute to his team's convincing 97-84 victory over the Hotdogs of RFM-Swift's. But don't sell Gilbert short. Reyes might just be a reliever, but he's also a former National cager as member of the Philippine squad that finished second to China in the 9th Asian Basketball Confederation Junior Championships held in Manila early this year. And observers feel that if Pumaren will make the jump to the pros next year, Reyes will most likely take his place in the National team which will be forrned for future competitions. Gilbert stands 5-7% and was born June 19, 1967. He is the fourth of six children (Chot, Len, Mike, Gilbert, Billy and Gilyn) of Gilbert Reyes, Sr. and Evelyn Perez. His dad works at the Continental Manufacturing Company. Elder brother Vincent (Chot) once played for Ateneo and is now concurrently assistant coach and manager of Purefoods Corporation also in the PABL. Ironically, instead of playing for Purefoods where his brother is, Jun opted to dribble for Magnolia "because this is the first team that made an offer." Actually, Jun saw action for Magnolia early this year during the PABL International Cup. After that lone tournament, he went back to his studies. Jun played for the Ateneo Blue Eaglets for two years and in his final year (1984), he was named Most Valuable Player. After that, he easily made it to the senior squad which, incidentally, won its first championship in the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines last September. Gilbert is taking up Inter-disciplinary studies at Ateneo.

Making it to the Junior squad early ths year, Jun had to make a lot of sacrifices by taking lesser loads. But now, he vows to make up for lost time. Sure, Jun can score when he wants to. But he is happy feeding his teammates and yelling out the plays. And despite the little playing time given him by his Magnolia coach, Jun makes the most of what playing time comes his way.  When John Gilbert Reyes, Jr., Jun to friends and fans, moved up to PBA in 1990 after fruitful collegiate and commercial basketball career, he was, truly ready for the play-for-pay league.
.

Anyway, that was what he thought. After all, he was one of Ateneo's major cogs in its back-to-back UAAP championship in 1987 and 1988, followed by a stint with the RP men's team in China He was the third overall draft pick, but expansion team Pepsi's first choice, and that was when Jun, looking back now, feels that he made his mistake in his chosen career. "I wanted to play in the PBA and with any team at that except expansion teams. And there were two at that time, Pepsi and Sunkist. When Pepsi drafted me, I had second thoughts and even wanted to defer my moving up to the PBA but my advisers said it would be better if I play even for one season then move to another team. I had some contract disputes pa with Pepsi so I wanted to back out," reminisced Jun, 29, who is on his seventh season already in the PBA. For him it was a matter of having entered at the wrong time and playing for the wrong team. "When I started, I had high expectations but then Pepsi always got eliminated. Hindi ko mailabas ang laro ko so hindi talaga na-develop. Walang nangyari sa first two years ko," added Jun, who on his third season got his wish for a new team when he got traded to Alaska for Eugene Quilban. "I welcomed the transfer. At the start, back up ako kay Frankie (Lim). Then when he got injured, I played the first point guard position for awhile. In 1992, Frankie got traded to Purefoods and I thought I would be finally the permanent starter, except that Johnny (Abarrientos) came into the picture, and it was a good move for the team as we started to improve and by the following year, we won a championship", said Jun. And so it was back to his old role as back-up player for him. "I have accepted my role as back-up to Johnny already so I might as well be a good back-up. The times that Johnny got injured, I was able to step up my game and even the few minutes I spell him, I always give it my best. At this time, if I stay with Alaska, talagang hanggang back-up na lang, my only chance to get into a first team is if I transfer to a team like San Miguel Beer where the point guards are old already," admitted Jun.