Tim Cone. Photo by August dela Cruz
MANILA, Philippines—Two coaches that would end up as legends in the PBA first met in 1990. Twenty-three (23) years later, their names are being mentioned alongside each other again.
Tim Cone achieved a milestone on Friday, tying the all-time record of the legendary Baby Dalupan with 15 championships after San Mig Coffee nipped Petron in game 7 for the 2013 PBA Governors’ Cup crown.
“It’s incredibly humbling,” said Cone of the feat. “I wish he had been here tonight. It would’ve been sweet to have him here.”
Then eloquent Cone couldn’t help but look back on that third conference Alaska-Purefoods finals series where he experienced the brilliance of Dalupan, first hand.
“A lot of people don’t know that my first finals appearance was [Dalupan’s] last championship. I was leading 2-0, and he swept me three games in a row,” Cone told reporters at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“That was his 15th, and now I was able to get my 15th 20-something-years later. It’s just an incredible story for me. I just remember I was so intimidated coaching against him.”
But this year, not even Petron’s stacked line-up could intimidate Cone and his Mixers as he mentored San Mig Coffee from a rocky start in the season-ending conference to a blaze of glory.
Cone, though, said that he did “very little” coaching in the last few games of the back-and-forth best-of-seven series, where the Mixers even trailed twice before bagging three of the last four.
“I tried to step back and just tell the guys that this is you, this is yours. They didn’t play perfect basketball but they played with perfect effort,” the multi-titled tactician said.
As he adds another accolade to his already illustrious career, Cone also wants to leave a long-lasting legacy to this generation of players as Dalupan did in his time.
“A lot of young guys didn’t get to see him coach and that’s a legacy they’re gonna miss forever. He had such a big impact on my life coaching-wise, I hope I could have that same impact on some of the young guys out there.”
