An Interview with Tim Cone
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 14 Jul 2014
Cone.
When erstwhile Alaska Milk coach Tim Cone transferred to the Purefoods franchise, all he wanted was make its team the Crown Jewel of the San Miguel Corp. Group.
He did more than that. Cone led the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers (the brand Purefoods carried in the Philippine Basketball Association's 38th and 39th Season), to capturing their first Grand Slam and, in the process, gifting himself too, his second such honor.
Cone, who came to the country at age nine and grew in the mountains of Baler in Quezon, Samar in the Visayas and Surigao del Norte in Mindanao to mention a few, actually handed the franchise its second title, the 2013 Governors'Cup, successfully defended the throne in this season's end, following successive title conquests of the Philippine Cup and the Commissioner's Cup for a rare four-peat only the fabled Crispa, San Miguel Beer and Alaska succeeded in accomplishing before.
The Redmanizers of the Danny Floro-Baby Dalupan tandem did it first bridging the league's Grand Slam year in 1976 and the following 1977 season then in winning their second Slam in 1983 under golfer-turned coach Tommy Manotoc and in 1984 under the late Narciso Bernardo.
In that 1976-1977 title rampage, the Redmanizers, actually had a six-championship run, a record the Coffee Mixers stand to tie or even surpass in the coming 40th Season of the country's and Asia's first professional league.
Cone, in an interview while appearing as guest in last Saturday's weekly SPORTS SABADO program aired over DZAR and viewed live via streaming at www.sonshinetvradyo.com, admitted having the chance to at least tie Dalupan's six consecutive championship runs although in his usual downplaying way said it's not his intention nor his Mixers to make a run on the record.
"Like that Grand Slam thing, we didn't really aspire for it," the former Aces mentor said during the program, sponsored by PCSO, Philippine Sports Commission and Rain or Shine. "It just came. It just so happened that we won last year's Governors' Cup then this year's Philippine Cup and the Commissioner's Cup and found ourselves having to defend the Governors' Cup, which we also succeeded."
"That's it. The Grand Slam was won!" the father of a girl, Nikki who is a law student in his alma mater George Washington University, and two boys, Kevin and Trevor, exclaimed during the forum, held under the auspices of the Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines SCOOP).
"Yeah, I really wanted to make Purefoods the Crown Jewel of the SMC Group, that I won't deny," Cone, who is married to Filipina Cristina Viaplana, a scion of a basketball family from Bacolod City, admitted. "I was thinking then that to upstage both San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra, we could be the best team in the SMC family. And if we are the best team among the teams under the corporation, we would also end up the best team in the land. And that would be wonderful."
"The boys (Mixers) exceeded my expectations. We, not only beat San Miguel and Ginebra, we, too, beat everybody and here we are a Grand Slam champion," Cone said. "This team is actually campaigning with growth as a team than goal. I want our bys to continue growing and if in so doing we win championships, so be it."
Cone assured, as if serving notice to the opposition, that it will also be the theme in their campaign the coming season. "I will be sing more of our young players, like Allein (Maliksi) Alex (Mallari), Justin (Melton) and others to rest my regulars (James Yap, Mark Pingris, Peter Jun Simon, Joe Devance, Rafi Reavis when opportunities arise like I did in the lasts conference."
"Our group is really strong right now," he assessed. "We love the way our team is right now. We love the chemistry, togetherness and as much as possible, we wanna stay intact," he said adding though that he will be using the coming draft to pick somebody who the team can utilize in the future.
"I would like to assure our fans that we'll be out there fighting to win our games. If we tie or break records, we would love that. But the bottom line is, we'll try to make our fans happier," he said.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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