by rick olivares pic by nuki sabio
We caught up with Tim Cone just as the re-branded
Purefoods Star Hotshots were preparing for their defense of the Grand Slam. The
eloquent and loquacious coach had much to say about the past season and the one
to come.
After spending more than
two decades with Alaska where he won 13 championships, Cone departed for
B-Meg/San Mig Coffee where he has once more brought his winning ways to
arguably what is the country’s most popular pro ball club today. Five titles
and a Grand Slam (his second) with his new team later, he is aiming to keep
this streak, this title run going for as long as it can.
If you talk to Cone, you
will constantly hear the word “growth.”
At first he was
goal-oriented but that subsequently morphed into being “growth-oriented.” The
coach explained, “When you try to achieve a goal, if you accomplish that then
you have a tendency to sit back and relax and say, ‘Well, it’s done.’ So you
take it easy and the hunger isn’t there anymore. Growth? I can honestly say
that I think I am a better coach than I was three years ago.”
With not much left to
conquer with Alaska, Cone chose to leave and try his luck with a new club. “Maybe
that is why it is considered shocking because there was no reason for me to
leave.”
The path is just a tad
similar to Phil Jackson’s, one of Cone’s coaching idols. “With Phil and the
Chicago Bulls, there was a lot of acrimony headed into that 1998 season. There
were major disagreements with Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause (the owner and
general manager respectively). As for my case, there was none. I wanted to see
if I could bring the culture that I developed to another team and be just as
successful,” explained Cone.
However, like Jackson who
was just as successful in Los Angeles, Cone found out that he could replicate
that winning culture with another club.
“Did I think we’d win all
this? No. To win one championship can sometimes be accidental. But multiple
titles? That’s like a quest; it is very difficult. It’s special. The key word here
is ‘culture.’ And that includes attitudes, ethics, the way we dress and the way
we think.”
“The Grand Slam achieved
with Alaska in 1996 is was very different from the one won with San Mig Super
Coffee,” said Cone. “The mechanics of the first grand slam were very different.
Primarily because of the scheduling was very different. Remember, it was a very
conventional time. We had a conference then a first break. The second
conference and then a break and so on. We were coming off a championship and
some very successful years that were leading to 1996. We had normal rest. We
beat Purefoods then Shell in a very tough series for the second title. In the
third we won 13 games in a row and went on to win 4-1 over Ginebra. There was a
sense of inevitability. We were so dominant. The only thing we had to overcome
was the specter of expectations. The previous season before that we lost the
third conference so when we had the opportunity to do it again we knew that we
weren’t going to step off that gas pedal.”
“Eighteen years later, the
difference is we were preparing for the Gilas tournament. We had the draft, the
practice and then we were already playing. There was no chance to sit down and
immerse everyone in the system and the culture. We were the underdogs in every
conference. In the first conference, Rain or Shine has won 13 games going into
the finals and we were struggling and barely got through. But we beat them in
six games. Then we played TNT that swept the eliminations. In the last
conference, we ended up being the sixth seed even if RoS was the second seed.
By that time, people were thinking we could do it again. My thinking was that
throughout the whole year we were not the dominant team. We just happened to
win what he had at the right time. The only similarity perhaps is that once we
got in the Finals of that third conference, there was that feeling that we
could do it.”
However, the “GS” word was
taboo in Cone’s camp.
“No one was ever allowed
to talk or mention the term “Grand Slam in all our meetings, practices, film
sessions etc. I said, ‘Don’t talk about it. Let others do it for us but let us
not encourage it because it adds to the pressure. We don’t even want to think
about it so we can concentrate on the here and now.’ The one time we began to
talk about it was after it was all done.”
With the 40th
Season of the PBA a day away from tip off, Cone is pretty much done talking
about the year before. “Can’t rest on our laurels,” he reasoned. “Whether the
club wins or loses, we have this saying, ‘Yesterday ended last night.’”
“I used to say that my two
goals were send all my kids to college in the US, and number two, to beat Baby
Dalupan’s record. Two of my three children are in the US (Nikki is in law
school in Washington while Kevin is at Santa Clara). I have my youngest son,
Trevor, who is only nine years old and is still at home. So I’m not yet done
with that. Regarding the second goal, Baby Dalupan was always my idol. I have
much respect for what he achieved. And even breaking the record, I that level
of respect has not dissipated one iota. Ultimately you want to be growth
oriented. Yesterday ended last night. You want to keep going. Winning is not
finite. You never want to say, ‘I never want to win again.’ Now the losing --
that gets tiring in a hurry.”
“Right now we’re in a good
place. Every conference last year was a struggle but we ended up winning. We
want to see how long we can keep this going. My idea is right now is to get
Justin (Melton), Ian (Sangalang) and Alex (Mallari) to be better because when
that happens, what more can they bring to the table and the system?”
Growth.
“Yeah, that’s the idea,”
laughed Cone.
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