Black on tying Dalupan at 601 wins as coach: ‘Big accomplishment’

Meralco coach Normal Black. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Meralco head coach Norman Black has almost everything he can possibly get in his 30 plus years of coaching.

From winning medals in the international stage to a five-peat in the collegiate ranks and a Grand Slam in the PBA, Black has them all in his coaching resumé.

Despite having all those glittering hardwares in his trophy case, his latest achievement, which doesn’t even involve a championship ring, ranks in the same echelon as his most prestigious accolades.

READ: Bolts survive Enforcers, gain key edge

“That’s a big accomplishment,” said Black after matching the legendary Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan for the third most wins by a PBA head coach with 601 on Wednesday.

“Most of us coaching now believe that he is the all-time greatest coach in history of Philippine basketball, so its’ a big accomplishment for me.”

What makes Black’s feat more impressive is the fact that he left the PBA for 10 years.

“It also means I’ve been coaching a long time, especially considering I was gone from the PBA for 10 years,” he said following the Bolts’ 104-99 victory over the Mahindra Enforcer to secure the No. 4 seed.

READ: Meralco still wary of ‘very energetic’ Mahindra

“Coaching is so interesting because in my case, I never really live in the past. I never really think about what I’ve done. Naturally, I just look forward to the next game. I look forward to help whatever team I’m coaching win more games. But every now and then, you get a chance to sit back and think about what you’ve done in the past and how many games you’ve won. And just to be mentioned in the same name as Baby is really a big deal.”

Rain or Shine’s Yeng Guiao is second in the list at 637 while Barangay Ginebra’s Tim Cone is on top with 833 victories.

Black said it’s going to be tough to catchup with Guiao, who has consistently guided the Elasto Painters to the playoffs.

“Coach Yeng is still coaching , so it might be hard to catch him. I was gone for 10 years and I won a lot of games in the amateurs, so there’s a strong possibility I’ll never catch coach Yeng as long as we’re both coaching at the same time,” he said. “I’m just interested in trying to win more games for Meralco and not really on the individual accomplishments.”

“The two of us have been coaching about the same amount of time and we continue to love coaching, so we want to be part of coaching and it’s a job for us. So he’ll always stay ahead of me if that’s the case.”

As for Cone’s mark, Black could only think about the decade he was coaching somewhere else.

“I had a lot of success in the amateur ranks, so maybe if I could’ve had that same success in the PBA, maybe I would be up there with coach Tim Cone.”