PBA: Ginebra coach Tim Cone picks ‘Top 5’ championship moments

By Waylon Galvez

For somebody who owns a record 22 titles in the Philippine Basketball Association spanning three decades, coach Tim Cone found it tough to pick his ‘Top Five’ championships moments.

There are plenty to choose from since Cone has had stints with three ballclubs — and won with all three.

Cone’s first stop was with Alaska Milk, a team he coached from 1989 to 2011, steering the franchise to 13 of its current 14 titles, including a Grand Slam  back in 1996.

Before the 2011-12 season, he transferred to B-Meg and helped the team to a championship that year. When the franchise changed its team name to San Mig Super Coffee, it made history with the league’s version of the ‘Triple Crown’ during the 2013-14 Season.

In 2015, Cone moved to Ginebra and quickly made an impact with a championship that season. At the moment, he has four titles with the popular team, the last of which was the 2019 Governors’ Cup.

While the number of titles is expected to increase, Cone has his choice ‘Top Five’ championship moments. He admits, however, picking – and even ranking one to five “is very hard to narrow down.”

Eventually he did, and these choices he shared with MB Sports:

First championship with Alaska

1991 Third Conference against Ginebra

Wins best-of-five series 3-1

“The first was, of course, memorable just because, mostly, it was the first. That was our Bong Alvarez series. It was against Ginebra, which made it doubly exciting, and “Mr. Excitement” himself had the task of guarding the prolific Wes Matthews, who had just recently left the Los Angeles Lakers. Bong, with the help of his friends… er, teammates, shut him (Matthews) down and we won the best-of-five. That was also Sean Chambers’ first championship, as well.”

Grand Slam with Alaska

1996 Governors’ Cup against Ginebra

Wins best-of-seven series 4-1

“In ‘96, again it was against Ginebra, which again added excitement. We had really reached our peak as a team (after winning the first two conferences). If I recall correctly, we had won something like 13 straight games before Ginebra beat us in Game 4 of the series by one point. We promptly won Game 5 to finish the series and win the championship along with the Grand Slam. That team was a special group led by Johnny (Abarrientos), Jojo (Lastimosa), Bong (Hawkins), Poch (Juinio), Jeff (Cariaso) and of course Sean (Chambers).”

Grand Slam with San Mig Super Coffee

2014 Governors’ Cup against Rain or Shine

Wins best-of-five series 3-2

“San Mig was a different story but no less satisfying. We had struggled through the whole conference trying to win our fourth (straight) conference (title) in a row, as well as the Grand Slam. It was like we were on our last legs, limping to the finish line. In the Finals, we played Yeng Guioa’s Rain or Shine and it went all the way to a Game 5. We pulled it out after both Paul Lee and Jeff Chan missed wide-open three-pointers to take the lead. Not sure how we did it, but we did it. It was just great character from Marc Pingris, James Yap, PJ Simon, Mark Barroca, Joe Devance, Marqus Blakely and the rest.”

B-Meg’s title campaign

2012 Commissioner’s Cup against Talk ’N Text

Wins best-of-seven series 4-3

“Denzel Bowles’ free throws. My first championship and my first year with the Purefoods franchise after leaving Alaska. There was a lot of emotion in that series from myself, and obviously, from Denzel after making those two free throws to go into overtime. No doubt, we benefitted with the foul call (against Ali Peek), but Denzel still had to step up and knock them down (free throws), and we still had to win the game in overtime, along with the championship.”

First title with Ginebra

2016 Governors’ Cup against Meralco

Wins best-of-seven series 4-3

The shot by Justin Brownlee – also, my first championship with Ginebra after leaving Purefoods. Of course, the termination of Ginebra’s 8-year title drought. It seemed that we were all feeling the immense day-to-day pressure of trying to win it for the fans. Also, that series had the “Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand” game in which the two of them brought us back from a large deficit in what ended up being the turning point of the series. That was probably my most memorable single game that I had been involved with, and then to win it with “The Shot” – I was so happy for Justin Brownlee.

Source: Manila Bulletin