Tim Cone says ‘no talk’ yet with SBP about him staying as Gilas coach

Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone. –ASIAN GAMES POOL

MANILA, Philippines–Tim Cone and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) have remained in touch even after the Asian Games, but the seasoned mentor said the talks are hardly about him staying on Gilas Pilipinas’ coaching saddle.

“I did see (Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al) Panlilio tonight, but he said he will contact me and we will talk. It’s not about the position,” Cone told reporters shortly after the Philippine Basketball Association’s opening ceremonies at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City,

“Just about a general vision of how the program’s gonna move forward. I think he just wants to get some of my ideas. But there’s been no talk (about me returning),” he went on.

Cone came in as a stop-gap measure for Gilas heading into the Hangzhou Asian Games after Chot Reyes’ sudden exit following a Fiba World Cup campaign that the latter himself described as a “failure.”

The Barangay Ginebra mentor had since made it clear that he was only coaching the Nationals on several conditions, including calling the shots on an interim basis.

But the clamor for him to stay the course has become undeniably louder, especially after helping deliver this cage-crazed country’s first Asian Games basketball gold in 61 years.

“I’ve been saying a couple of times publicly already, that’s a very complex question. There’s not a simple answer for that,” Cone said of the prospect of staying for the long haul.

“There’s so many things that go on in terms of how the vision is going to be done,” Cone went on. “ And like I said, it was a simple answer for me to do the Asian Games. There was like, I’m gonna do it from here to here. It was very finite.”

“We had a full vision—we knew what we wanted to do, and how we wanted to do it. There were a lot of stops and goes and ups and downs along the way. But we just continued to roll with the punches. That was one of our things: We just gotta be like Manny Pacquiao. We talked about it a lot, we wanna be like Manny. Guys come at it, things happen to us, they throw us a punch, we get hit. We just gotta keep rolling and keep moving forward and that’s kind of what we did. That was very—from start to end. Now it’s very open-and .”

Next year is going to be less busy for the national federation and the basketball program compared to this year. But among those tournaments pegged for the new year is the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which is the Philippines’ last chance to make the Paris Summer Games.

And Cone reached for perspective to explain how complicated navigating that calendar could get.

“How are things going to work? Where are we going? If you’re going to be in a conference, then how are you gonna do the window? Are you gonna do it two weeks before? Are you gonna hire someone full-time? Is there enough work for a full-time head coach for the national team?”

“I think we only have two or three windows next year. There’s no World Cup, there’s no Asian Games. I don’t think there’s even a (Southeast) Games next year. So is there enough work for a full-time coach to do that stuff? All the players that full-time coach is supposed to coach—they are playing in the PBA, or in Japan or in South Korea [and] he’s not gonna have access to them unless the (PBA) shuts down (for a while) and just how long can a league shut down to do a one-weekend (Fiba) window?”

“Those are very complex questions and there are no simple answers for them. Those need to be decided before you decide who’s gonna lead that team. So that’s what I’m saying: It’s too complex of a question to give a simple yes or no to,” Cone closed.