There’s more to come, vows Kings coach Cone

One championship down, more to come.

That’s the harsh reality that other PBA teams will now face after Ginebra shed eight years of futility to finally win a PBA crown.

Coach Tim Cone, who has established championship runs in every franchise he has coached, now hopes to do the same for the Kings after Wednesday night’s 91-88 conquest of Meralco for the Governors’ Cup.

Justin Brownlee hit the deciding basket but Cone also paid tribute to LA Tenorio, the Finals MVP who kept the Kings in the thick of the fight in the second half.

“LA just took over,” said Cone. “At some point you want to say, he’s not gonna win the game by himself, and there were a couple of times where he maybe tried to do too much, but he kept our momentum going.”

And Cone wants to keep the championship momentum going.

“This is not ‘a’ championship,” he said. “In our minds, this is our ‘first’ championship.

“This is not the only championship that we’re gonna get. we’re gonna go out and get another one,” he added. “We’re not into just winning a championship, we want to win many. It wasn’t our goal to win a championship, our goal is to win many championships.”
That’s not an empty threat.

Cone has coached two other squads in the PBA: The Alaska and Purefoods franchises. And with each one, he was more than just a one-hit wonder.

In fact, the league’s most successful coach has won Grand Slams in each of his previous two stops. With a report from Mark Giongco