Chongson on UE coaching issue: Silva ‘just wouldn’t let go’

MANILA, Philippines – The UE Red Warriors’ campaign for the UAAP Season 82 once again got off to a rocky start.

Just a day before tip-off, news broke that head coach Joe Silva resigned from the team as Bong Tan and team consultant Lawrence Chongson took over. 

While on paper, the move appeared to happen out of nowhere, Chongson broke down the situation to reporters after UE fell to UST, 82-95.

“As I have said, not to offend anybody, I’ve been coaching them for 4 months,” he said after the game. “Coach Joe knows this. He was a part of it. He just wouldn’t let go of the title.” 

“When he left, it was no big deal for the players, not even,” he continued. “It was a non-issue with the players with him leaving. The issue is some people in the school tried to interfere. Tried to make a circus out of it.” 

As recent as two weeks ago, Silva was still overseeing practices and tune-up games with Chongson also manning the sidelines. 

However, with Silva now out of the way, Chongson can fully focus on trying to take UE back to the Final Four.

“We’ve been through some turmoil in the past few days, not to take anything away from UST, they played a great game,” he said. “We were really outplayed. But, I would only hope it would toughen us up as we go along.” 

He also noted that head coach Tan – the son of school owner and business tycoon Lucio Tan – will try to make it to the games when he has free time, but did not guarantee that he will be around every game. 

“We all have eyes,” Chongson added regarding their coaching dynamic. “Do we need to press release or are we going to believe in lies, or charades? We all have eyes and a sense of judgment, right?” – Rappler.com