Ginebra head coach Tim Cone. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
It’s not often that Tim Cone-mentored teams get to the top of the standings.
But when the opportunity presents itself, the two-time Grand Slam-winning champion shared that he won’t shy away from grabbing the pole position.
“It’s never been a real concern being number one. I never felt that. If it’s available, you go for it, but if it’s not, it’s not something we go for at all costs. I’ve not been number one many times in my career,” said Cone, who is usually content on keeping his teams in the middle of the pack.
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However, a rare opportunity came for Cone on Friday as Ginebra snared the number one seed with a 9-2 record after a 94-80 thumping of Mahindra in the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Though the veteran mentor relished the twice-to-beat incentive that comes along with being number, he knows that there are also risks involved.
“It’s nice to be the number one seed, but there will always be expectations that comes with being the number one seed. It’s something we have to battle and make sure we don’t put too much pressure on ourselves and don’t live up to the expectations, just do the things that we know we can do to be successful. That’s the goal at this point,” he said.
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Cone has had his fair shares of ups and downs when it comes to being the number one, much like Ginebra’s history.
The multi-titled Mentor led B-Meg to the top-seed of the 2012 Philippine Cup, just to be stunned by the eighth-seed Powerade, led by Gary David, JVee Casio, and Marcio Lassiter, in the quarterfinals.
But the last time a team of Cone paced an import-laden conference, Alaska was able to snare a championship with Devin Davis in the 1998 Commissioner’s Cup.
The no. 1. Gin Kings, meanwhile, were booted out in seven games in the semifinals of the Grand Slam-seeking San Mig Coffee, incidentally coached by Cone, in the 2014 Philippine Cup.
But it had been 20 years since the franchise grabbed the top seed of a reinforced conference, when Chris King helped the then-Gordon’s Gin cop the 1997 Commissioner’s Cup against no less than the Cone-coached Alaska Milkmen.
“Blast from the past, right?,” Cone said with a smile as he reminisced the old days. “It shows how tough it is to be number one. San Miguel makes it seem so easy every conference, but it’s not.”
Cone, though, believes that the top spot is something that belongs to Ginebra especially with the way it played this conference.
“Like I told my guys, we deserve to be number one. We beat all the top teams and now, we should take advantage of it. But we can’t play on everybody’s expectations and we have to play to our own. Our expectations should be on the right way, the next play you do,” he said.
Still, you can’t blame Cone for being wary of the next challenge as the Gin Kings await the winner of the eighth-place playoff between Alaska and GlobalPort.
“If we play Alaska, it will be the third straight quarterfinals we had against Alaska. They’re an incredibly dangerous team and when they got things going well, they’re very, very good. Also, the other choice is (Terrence) Romeo and (Stanley) Pringle and it’s an incredible challenge staying with those guys,” he said.
“We got our work cut out for us. We’re the number one seed, we got twice to beat, but there’s still tough teams out there that we have to beat in the quarterfinals.”