ODYSSEY OF CHRIS: Countless heartbreaks, success strenghten Gavina

When one door closes, another one opens.

Basketball coach Chris Gavina takes this by heart as he continues to explore, enhance and develop his craft.

A student of the game, Gavina has absorbed every morsel of knowledge he could get from all the brilliant tacticians he worked with or played against to improve his coaching skills.

Bouncing around as deputy to mentor for different teams in local leagues, including his last stint in the country as head coach of Rain or Shine in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), has prepared the 45-year-old Filipino-American for a bigger career move: Coaching abroad.

Although winning a championship in the Philippines was elusive, Gavina found relative success in his international stint. He steered the star-studded Taiwan Mustangs to The Asian Tournament Leg 4 Championship throne last year to end his long-awaited title search.

Gavina is now among the elite club of Filipino coaches making their mark on the international stage.

Leap of faith

“My overseas coaching experience has been incredibly enriching and transformative, both professionally and personally,” Gavina told Daily Tribune.

He, however, credited the likes of current Elasto Painters mentor Yeng Guiao and other PBA champion coaches as his biggest coaching influence and inspiration.

“But going up against these highly lauded and champion coaches like Coach Tim (Cone), Norman (Black), Chot (Reyes) and Coach Yeng, they prepared me, obviously, tactically, mentally, going up against those guys,” he said.

Gavina’s journey into coaching wasn’t easy.

The Stevens Institute of Technology standout back in his college days in New Jersey, left his work as a formulation chemist in the United States to pursue a basketball career in the Philippines in 2008 where he signed with the Quezon Oilers and Mandaue-Cebu in the defunct Liga Pilipinas.

He went back to the US after two years and earned a strength and conditioning coach certification and eventually landed a job with AirAsia Philippine Patriots in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) in 2011 before transferring to GlobalPort in the PBA.

Gavina’s first coaching break came in 2016 when he was appointed as deputy to then playing-coach Manny Pacquiao for Mahindra.

He would then be named head coach of the squad rebranded as Kia for one season in 2017. Gavina handled the Valenzuela Classic in 2018 in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL).

In 2018, he was tapped as Rain or Shine assistant behind head coach Caloy Garcia. He replaced Garcia in 2021 and slid back to deputy the following year on Guiao’s return.

Seize the moment

Following Gavina’s relegation to assistant coach, an opportunity to coach abroad came knocking on his door.

The Taichung Suns of the T1 League in Taiwan expressed interest in having him onboard.

“This all occurred around September 2022. Actually, right when coach Yeng Guiao had taken over the team, they agreed for me to go to Taiwan,” he recalled.

“It was fairly easy, to be honest with you. It was a fairly easy conversation to have with coach Yeng. He was the first that I informed of the offer and the opportunity and my decision as well. It was right after a game we had at Philsports,” he added.

“I forgot who we played, and then right after, we had our, I believe, our Christmas dinner with the bosses at Tipsy Pig, and that’s when I also informed them of my decision, and it was boss Raymond (Yu), boss Terry (Que) was there, (Rain or Shine alternate governor) boss Edison (Oribiana).”

The Elasto Painters management and coaching staff were very supportive of his decision, according to Gavina.

“They were all supportive. They just wanted to make sure that I made sure that everything was written in stone before I decided to forgo my position at Rain or Shine,” he said.

He signed with the Suns in October.

The 2022-2023 T1 season was challenging for Gavina and the Suns.

Still, the squad managed to crawl from the play-in to reach the semifinals before bowing to eventual champion New Taipei CTBC DEA in three games.

For Gavina, it’s still a successful international debut.

“All I do remember was that we had that extremely difficult play-in games that we had to play back-to-back in 48 hours just to make it to the semis,” he said.

“Again, we were ranked fifth at the time, and we had to play the fourth-place team, which was Taiwan Beer. In the first game, we had to overcome a 28-point deficit in the second half and win in double overtime. Then, 48 hours later, we wound up winning the second game on a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer that pushed us to the semifinals.”

“That, to me, was the highlight of my first coaching stint in Taiwan, before the Asian tournament.”

Champion finally

Gavina left the Suns after just one season in June 2023 but his exploits with the team did not go unnoticed as he was tapped to call the shots for the Taiwan Mustangs in the 4th leg of The Asian Tournament in August 2024.

Led by former National Basketball Association (NBA) champions Dwight Howard and Quinn Cook as well as former NBA All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins, the Mustangs completed a five-game romp en route to winning the crown.

They overwhelmed the Zamboanga Valientes, 146-100, in the final game.

“Obviously, that was one of the highlights of my coaching career thus far, winning an international championship with the Taiwan Mustangs alongside NBA stars like Dwight Howard, DeMarcus Cousins and Quinn Cook,” Gavina said.

It was a nerve-racking experience for Gavina coaching NBA stars and PBA champion Alex Cabagnot.

“You know, that was going into that tournament, I really didn’t know what to expect from that level of talent,” he said.

“And, you know, for me, it was a challenge with regards to how I was going to deal with such elite players. And it worked out extremely well, I would say, in my opinion. Those guys were extremely professional,” Gavina added.

“They let me do my job and I let them do their job. And, you know, we all came out happy at the end with the championship.”

Before their The Asian campaign, the Mustangs played a tuneup game in Manila against Gilas Pilipinas, which was then building up for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Continue learning

Working abroad has given Gavina a different perspective.

After all, he is technically an overseas Filipino worker in that sense.

“To be honest with you, my tenure abroad emphasized the significance of mental toughness and resilience,” he said.

“Yes, you get to compete at a high level at that international stage. But you also have to overcome numerous challenges like what we spoke about. It was during these moments that I truly witnessed the power of building a culture based on unity, hard work, and dedication to having a personal responsibility in delivering excellence on a day-to-day basis.”

“That’s what you rely on for yourself. Your team takes on that personality. That’s what I’ve learned in basketball and life. The term they say, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going,’ is a true statement of that stint I had overseas.”

For now, Gavina is busy holding basketball clinics as his way of paying it forward to the sport that has been very generous to his career.

He’s doing this while waiting for his next destination to spread his wings.