THOUGHT PROCESS
Tim Cone spent Wednesday afternoon holding court in front of corporate executives hoping that his coaching philosophies can provide a valuable perspective in a different arena.
“It’s something I enjoy talking about,” Cone said after serving as guest speaker of the event organized by the Management Association of the Philippines at Shangri-La Fort in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. “I just try to approach it like I’m in a classroom where I’m teaching.”
Cone discussed various topics, from the things he learned from NBA coaches like Steve Kerr and Erik Spoelstra, who the two-time PBA Grand Slam mentor was able to pick his brains during an NBA Summer League stint a few years ago.
The Gilas Pilipinas tactician also discussed the things he dealt with in stints with the national team, Alaska, the Purefoods franchise and with Ginebra, which he has been in charge of for almost 10 years.
During the talk that lasted an hour, he touched upon the day when San Miguel Corp. big boss Ramon Ang told him about his transfer to Ginebra, which made Cone reluctant.
“I really didn’t want to leave at that point,” he recalled. “I remember walking out of the meeting with Mr. Butch Alejo and asked him if there’s any way I could say no. And he looked at me and goes: ‘Absolutely not.’”
He came to Ginebra needing to meet high expectations, especially at the time when the crowd favorites were still in search of a first title since the 2008 Fiesta Conference. The Gin Kings have since won seven championships under Cone.
“There’s a sense that players felt like there was just this big monkey on their back that they couldn’t get rid of. So we have to deal with expectations,” he said. “[But] the bottom line was that we got them focused not on the event, not to win the championship, but to be process-oriented. And that was how we got over the hump.”
Core values
Currently, Ginebra is in the midst of a mini-drought with two years in between now and its last title, which came in the 2022 to 2023 Commissioner’s Cup. Cone and the Gin Kings are in the hunt to end it in the ongoing Philippine Cup as they resume that process on Friday against the Blackwater Bossing at Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
He hopes that the core values Cone has preached at Ginebra—a defense-first mindset, attention to detail, compassion and empathy and accountability—can lead to the end goal the Gin Kings are aiming for.
But in the meantime, Ginebra’s short-term focus is to avoid falling into a sense of comfort against Blackwater, which slumped to a 1-5 record following Wednesday’s loss to Meralco, and go 5-2 before a slate of big matchups to wrap up the eliminations.
Also in the talk, Cone discussed how each game should be treated as if it’s going to be close, regardless of the opponent.
“That’s why we used the term ‘one-point win,’” he said. “That’s the minimum level, the baseline that we wanted to reach and not drop down like this team is not tough or this team is tough. So you gotta go out there and think that it’s always gonna be a tough game.”
