Ginebra is shouldering responsibilities a la national team in its PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals matchup versus the visiting Bay Area.
Coach Tim Cone offered that their best-of-seven bout starting on Christmas Day means more than just vying for the title as the Kings would want to represent not only the club and the league, but an entire nation as well the best they can.
“We’re playing for more than just ourselves,” he said during the pre-Finals press conference at the Novotel Manila Araneta City in Cubao, Friday.
“We’re playing for more than just Ginebra. We’re playing for the league, we’re playing for the country — almost feels like we’re the national team, which is really cool for us,” the current Gilas Pilipinas assistant coach furthered.
Expounding further, Cone said that Ginebra’s mentality is essentially defending home turf against the guest team from Hong Kong, who has a shot of becoming the first foreign club to rule the PBA since Nicholas Stoodley in 1980.
Pride has really come into play for the local bets as Bay Area’s been nothing short of impressive in its first gig as a unit in the mid-season tilt, where it finished the eliminations as the top seed on the way to reaching the Last Dance.
The Dragons have won 14 of their last 17 games thus far in a run that saw the squad progress from being widely viewed as heavily reliant on their celebrated imports to becoming a well-rounded one with the growth of their locals.
“It’s not just about the PBA, it’s about the whole country. All of us don’t want to see a foreign team come in, a guest team come in and dominate our league.
“I think we have our own turf, our own home court, that we need to defend,” said the league’s most successful mentor with 24 championships.
With that, Cone is hoping for a huge turnout in the championship series, calling on all fans to unite and support the Barangay in their bid to slay the Dragons.
“We’re hoping that everybody comes and supports us. Not just Ginebra fans — we have massive Ginebra fans. We’d like to see San Miguel fans, Phoenix fans, Magnolia [fans],” the two-time Grand Slam winner said.
“I mean all of the fans to come out — Ateneo, La Salle, UP… all of them to come out to support us. I think that’s going to give us the edge that we need to try to win this series.
“We’re not just representing Ginebra in this series. We’re representing the whole league and the whole country in many respects. We’re super excited and we’re hoping that all the fans from around the league also get super excited,” he continued.
Game One is on Sunday, December 25, 5 p.m., at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay in the first Christmas Finals game since the 2002 All-Filipino Cup.
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
