WHEN Tim Cone was brought in last year to take the reins at Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, he knew some time of learning was needed to turn an “underperforming” team to a winning one. And this process was something he preached to his players from Day One, believing that by only recognizing that would they achieve the success the franchise was aspiring for.
Last Wednesday, the process of learning finally bore fruit for Coach Tim and the Gin Kings as they notched the team’s first Philippine Basketball Association title in eight years, beating the resilient and gallant Meralco Bolts, 91-88, in Game Six of their best-of-seven Governors’ Cup finals affair to close out the series, 4-2.
And they did it in the most dramatic of ways, with import Justin Brownlee hitting the championship-winning three-pointer as time expired that sent the entire Smart Araneta Coliseum to a raucous celebration.
It was the ninth title for the popular PBA club all in all, and first since the 2008 Fiesta Cup.
The championship also put an end to the years of underachievement and underperforming by Barangay Ginebra, which had stakeholders and fans alike bewildered.
Having finally broken through, Mr. Cone said he is very happy and proud with what they have achieved but could not help look back at the journey they had to go through to be where they are now.
“I can write a novel about this; an 800-page novel about the journey that we had this year. There were a lot of ups and down, a lot of adversities. But the key really was for the guys to buy into the system of what we were trying to do. And it’s not just this conference but for the whole year,” said Mr. Cone, when asked by BusinessWorld after their win for his thoughts on the kind of year they had.
Mr. Cone, who padded his total PBA titles won to 19 (best all-time) with the Ginebra championship, went on to detail some of the roadblocks they had to go through.
“We lost in the first conference to GlobalPort in a controversial manner in the quarterfinals and in the second conference we lost the first game to Rain or Shine in another controversial manner and we ended up losing in that quarterfinal series. We had a lot of things to overcome,” said the coach, who now already won championships with three PBA teams, joining Baby Dalupan, Norman Black, Jong Uichico and Chot Reyes in the exclusive list.
“And Game Four of the San Miguel series [in the Governors’ Cup] was tough and we were embarrassed in front of our fans. We bottomed out and that was really a turning point for us. Then we were down 2-1 against Meralco [in this series]. We suffered through a lot but we hanged on,” he added.
“We knew the fans were impatient already and they wanted to win right away but the players bought into the system that it is going to be a process and we are going to learn along the way and grow and be better through the tough times. For us it was about what doesn’t kill us makes us better and stronger, and we were not killed enough and we kept coming back stronger,” said Mr. Cone in further highlighting the road they had to take.
The latest championship put the Ginebra franchise in joint fifth place in titles won in league history with fabled Toyota with nine.
San Miguel still leads with 22, followed by Alaska with 14 and Purefoods and Crispa with 13 each.
© MYBigBrother Mike Murillo
