Tim Cone couldn’t be any prouder to earn ‘bragging rights’ over Brian Goorjien even just for one night after Barangay Ginebra became the very first team to beat Bay Area in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Sunday.
The revered coaches have heard a lot about one another over the years but never had the chance to match up until the highly-awaited clash, and the league’s only 24-time mentor introduced himself in impressive fashion.
And that’s by slaying the Dragons through a 111-93 result, sending the guest team crashing back down to earth after a 4-0 start while collecting their second win in a row since beginning the tilt with a blowout loss to Rain or Shine.
“I guess, for the night, I get the bragging rights,” humbly said Cone shortly after their dominant victory at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
The 64-year-old admitted that there was plenty of motivation for the Kings in playing Bay Area, who was unbeaten since arriving in Manila last August — the club won all its tuneups and carried that over to the tourney until Sunday.
“For me personally, I have so many reasons to get motivated. They have been beating everybody up,” he said.
“They won four games already here, and they had a couple of tough games — they won seven preseason games, and they beat the Koreans that were here,” he added, referring to the Changwon LG Sakers of the KBL.
What also pushed the Barangay was to represent not just the franchise nor the PBA, but the entire country and its brand of hoops as well, Cone added.
(C) PBA Images
“I mean, like Justin said — that was one of the things we said in the locker room — we’re not only representing Ginebra, we’re representing the whole league. And in many ways, we’re representing the country,” he said.
“So, we wanted to come out and really show … we were motivated,” the former Gilas Pilipinas head coach furthered.
Still, Cone holds Goorjian in such high regard, extremely honored to have shared the court with the Olympic bronze medal-winning mentor.
“It’s such an honor to coach against Brian Goorjian. My gosh. I’ve been hearing his name for years. I’ve been hearing his name for the last 30 years. And the fact that I was even on the same floor with him is such an honor,” he said.
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
