Ginebra head coach Tim Cone. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
It has only been than two months since Barangay Ginebra captured the PBA Philippine Cup in front of a record crowd, but head coach Tim Cone doesn’t want his team to think too much of that glory as they transition into the All-Filipino Conference.
“We don’t want to remember that too much, we want to move forward so we’ll put that behind us,” said Cone Friday at Ginebra’s practice facility at Upper Deck Sports Center.
The Gin Kings prevailed in the seventh game over Meralco 101-96 in front of 54,068 people in Philippine Arena to nab their second straight Governors’ Cup, and a tarpaulin once hung inside Ginebra’s practice facility in commemoration of the achievement.
That tarpaulin, however, is had long been folded, as Cone wants his players to set their sights on the Philippine Cup that they last won in 2008.
“There’s a poster there but it’s been folded up, it used to hang down all the way to the floor but I told the team ‘we don’t want that, we don’t want to remember that too much,’” said Cone, whose Gin Kings finished second in last year’s Philippine Cup to champions San Miguel.
“I hope we don’t have championship hangovers, we’re over that, I hope we can go smoothly to the Philippine Cup.”
And aiding Cone in his quest to finally topple San Miguel’s three-year reign in the All Filipino Conference is the returning Greg Slaughter, who missed the 2017 title round due to injury.
The seven-foot Slaughter is the only person in the PBA bigger than San Miguel’s four-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, who stands at 6-foot-10, and Cone looks forward to his giant center to slow down the Kraken.
“June Mar is the one that makes the [San Miguel] engine run, if you take out June Mar off the equation then you have a chance,” said Cone who also has the 6-foot-9 Japeth Aguilar to complement Slaughter.
“We have a couple of counters to June Mar’s size so hopefully we can be the one, but again it’s really tough because San Miguel is a really tight team, they execute well, and they really believe they can win.”