Cone finds alternative lifestyle amid health restrictions

Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone (right) gives encouragement to his team. —PHOTO COURTESY OF PBA IMAGES

CLARK FREEPORT—The Philippine Basketball Association’s self-contained zone may seem to restrictive for outsiders looking in.

With strict health protocols and tight security measures, it may seem like basketball is the only activity that happens hereabouts.

But the activities permitted by the league in exchange for those restrictions and measures have created opportunities for bubble residents to explore a different lifestyle—and enjoying it.

“I’m actually getting in good shape, better than when I’m in Manila,” Barangay Ginebra mentor Tim Cone said with a chuckle.

“Nothing else to do [here],” said Cone, the only coach in league history to win two Grand Slams.

The lack of options has forced a routine on Cone, who gets up around 10:30 a.m.

“[By] 11, I get up and walk around, then do an hour of workout in the pool, where I do laps,” he said.

And he runs, too. In one of those runs, he was joined by one of his former players, Jojo Lastimosa, who is now an assistant coach at NLEX.

And the two got to chat a lot about, well, basketball.

“We had a great conversation. It was really great to reconnect with Jo. It’s the best run I ever had. I didn’t feel like I was running because of the conversation,” Cone said.

Cone, however, has been granted some exemptions inside the bubble.

“I’m 62. I deserve not to have a roommate,” he said, laughing underneath a face mask. “I never had a roommate—except my wife—in the last 30 years.”

“I think my last roommate was Chot Reyes in that years ago,” Cone added. “As roommates, we worked out a trade for Jeff Cariaso. We got him back from [Coca-Cola]. That was the last time I think I had a roommate.”