Playing for Ginebra ‘both curse and blessing’ as crowd darlings race to prepare for opener

FILE – A PBA game day at Philippine Arena on Christmas Day. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Barangay Ginebra is literally on a race against time.

The Gin Kings are in a pinch less than two weeks before the start of the 2019 PBA season after they were told that they would play in the opening day on January 13 from the initial schedule of January 19.

The league suddenly tapped the crowd darlings to be on opening night since the season opener would be held at the 55,000-capacity Philippine Arena and Ginebra has the fan base to more than fill the seats.

“I told the guys that’s the curse and blessing of being a member of Ginebra,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone after his team’s practice Friday at Upper Deck.

“You’re going to do things because of your popularity, you have a huge fan base and you will be asked do things that teams aren’t being asked to.”

Ginebra already showed its tremendous power in filling up Philippine Arena in Games 5 to 7 of the 2017 Governors’ Cup finals against Meralco, and that’ the drawing power PBA wanted from the Gin Kings for the season opener.

“The idea of being a member of this group and that fan base overrules any inconveniences that we may have, we’ll come out.”

Cone knows that he doesn’t have that much time in his hands to prepare the Gin Kings for the 13th so he had to resort to two-a-day practices.

And these are the kinds of sessions that Cone used during the 1990s when he coached Alaska.

“These guys are experiencing what it’s like to play when I was a young coach—when I wanted to kill people,” joked Cone.