Young Cebuano big man Carl Tamayo has caught the eye of Gilas program director Tab Baldwin during his stint inside the Gilas’ training bubble inside the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna.
The 62-year old Baldwin spoke glowingly of Tamayo, who hails from Talisay City, during his appearance on the web show Hoops Life, saying he was surprised by the intensity and competitiveness of the 6-foot-8 big man.
Even though he’s one of the new faces in the Gilas pool, Baldwin shared that Tamayo played like he belongs out there on the floor with his older counterparts.
“He’s gonna be a problem for all of his opponents,” shared Baldwin of the 20-year old Tamayo. “I’m not gonna get into too much praise. He’s a very, very fine player and huge upside. But let me tell you something I didn’t know about him, when Carl went out on the court, and I saw him immediately being confrontational, immediately being a bit of a, I gotta keep my language clean here, I think. Can I say an ‘A’, I’ll just say an antagonist. I’ll say an antagonist. But most of us can convert it to what I really wanna say. He wanted a piece of everybody.”
“And in an environment where he didn’t have any natural teammates, he didn’t have anybody from NU that was his buddy, he immediately, let’s say Isaac Go set an illegal screen on one of his teammates. He was gonna get a piece of Isaac shortly thereafter. I’m over there on the sideline looking for somebody to tell how much I love this kid,” Baldwin continued.
“But I fell in love with the kid for that reason alone. Coach Alton Lister and I were talking on the ride over here to the bubble, and we were talking about the fact that Filipinos are such a nice race of people. And far too many of them carry that niceness from off the court, on the court.
“It’s not that they’re not competitive. They are and then they’re talented, and they want to win and all of that. But they are not made of that substance that they will do almost anything to win, generally speaking,” Baldwin added. “I don’t think Carl is gonna back down from anybody when it comes to trying to get to his end goal on the basketball court. And I think that bodes extremely well for him, for any team that he plays for.” (JNP)