A well deserved win for Coach Tim Cone

     I was watching the replay of the PBACommissioners Cup Finals Game 7 between Talk n’ Text and B-Meg Llamados, where the former was thought most likely to win the championship. Who would ever think that we would be witnessing so much intensity and emotion in just one game.

               

     Last year, just before the start of the 2011 All Filipino Cup, Alaska head coach Tim Cone who has fourteen championship titles under his belt announced that he is parting ways with his mother team Alaska Aces and switching over to B-Meg (formerly Purefoods). I cannot say that I was totally surprised this huge move from coach Cone, but somehow I kinda saw it coming. Though I have never heard of any rumblings of arguments or misunderstanding of any kind between Cone and his former team, but there were some signs that the once solid relationship between the two is slowly crumbling into pieces. It has been quite some time since Alaska has won a championship and I believe this is due to Cone’s failure to mold new players into championship form, something that Alaska was known for when it still had its key players (Jojo Lastimosa, Johnny Abarrientos, Bong Hawkins, Poch Juinio and Kenneth Duremdes). Tim Cone is known to be a pioneer in using the Triangle Offence here in the Philippines by simply watching tapes of Chicago Bulls’ games over and over and over. He never has any formal training. Alaska management gave Cone the freedom to stir a fairly young and unknown team into achieving its full potential and to be known as “The Team of The 90’s” for winning numerous championships including the very elusive Grand Slam in 1996 (up to this date, Alaska was the only team to have won a Grand Slam in the last two decades).  

     Another instance was when rumors spread wildly about bringing back 1996 MVP Johnny Abarrientos to its playing roster whom has carried them to numerous championships. Now, we all know the story how Alaska traded him to then Pop-Cola… Abarrientos was completely clueless and learned about the trade on the newspapers. Talk about harsh not to mention the lack of gratitude! The man literally carried an entire team on his shoulders, showed up on games with an IV (Intravenous) on his hands only to be put back in the game because they cannot afford to lose their Point Guard. But we never heard Johnny complained. Even at the peak of his career he never showed any kind of attitude or ego and his team mates appreciated more because of that. To Johnny, he was simply doing his job. Did he even get an apology for being treated thus? No. So Abarrientos became a journey man and moved from one team to another and still continued to win championships (a bit of a lucky charm himself) until his retirement in 2009.

     When Alaska celebrated its 25thAnniversary in 2010, all of its current and former players attended the prestigious event including PBA’s only resident import Sean Chambers. Cone expressed his wish to bring back Johnny to play for Alaska for one more season in their attempt to rejuvenate the team. Both parties failed to meet halfway and now we will never what might have been. Today, Johnny Abarrientos works for coach Tim Cone as his assistant coach alongside with former Alaska team mate Jeffrey Cariaso (who was also part of the Grand Slam team.

          In the dying seconds of the game, B-Meg import Denzel Bowles was fouled forcing him to make that difficult trip to the free throw line. We were on the edge of our seats as we witness raw emotion poured out of the players especially from their Team Manager four time MVP winner Alvin Patrimonio. That was a defining moment especially for Bowles. He’s creating a name for himself and those moments were a true test to his character. B-Meg eventually won the championship via overtime, the underdogs has won the championship. But that’s what Coach Tim Cone prefers, to be known as underdogs but come out as undeniable winners. Congratulations to B-Meg and of course to Tim Cone, it was a well earned win and we expect in the years to come.