Cheers filled the SMART Araneta Coliseum when LA Tenorio sank a three-pointer for the opening basket of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s PBA Governors’ Cup meeting with NorthPort, Friday night.
“I remember, it was making our first basket. And there was a roar. And I go, Whoa! Wow! I’ve never heard that,” head coach Tim Cone recalled.
“It was like a brand new feeling all over again.”
Moments later, a chant so familiar rang out – a chant that the entire team waited for nearly two years to hear and bask in again.
“And then coming from the timeouts, a few, ‘GI-NEB-RA! GI-NEB-RA!’ It was just so satisfying hearing that again and being a part of it.”
The Gin Kings finally played in front of a crowd after nearly two years, so they gave the fans a show to remember. They put on a dominant 108-82 thrashing of the Batang Pier to collect their second win in as many games.
If you wonder, the last time that the league’s most popular team played before a live audience was on January 17, 2020. There, they beat Meralco at a packed Mall of Asia Arena to win their third Governors’ Cup title in four years.
Cone couldn’t be any happier to have enjoyed the fans’ adoration again after a very long while. For him, it brought some sense of normalcy.
“It just triggers to me that we’re almost back to normal when you’re hearing that kind of stuff,” he said moments after the win.
Also bringing that very same sense to the two-time Grand Slam-winning mentor was him wearing his trademark long sleeves plus, yes, necktie.
In the bubble conferences, Cone and his coaching staff wore the casual black team polo shirts – far from their corporate look.
“We always said that the neckties would come back when the fans come back. And this is the first time we’ve seen the fans, so we want to put the neckties back on,” said the league’s only 23-time champion coach.
“Our coaching staff was like, ‘Awww, man.’ For me, I was excited. it’s been my thing. For me, when I put that necktie back on, it triggers that feeling of normalcy for me. I’m happy,” added the 64-year-old.
“I don’t look as good in a necktie as I did twenty years ago, thirty years ago when I started coaching. I look kinda fat, and ugly, and old now. Still, it’s tradition, ‘di ba? So I gotta wear it.”
Moving forward, and granted that things will become much better, Cone hopes to see the fans fill up the venues again like before.
That, perhaps, is a Christmas wish of his, especially with Ginebra set to battle Magnolia in a Manila Clasico affair on December 25 at the Big Dome.
“I just hope that we can grow it, it can go from 50-percent to 70 to 85 and get back to where we’re having big Ginebra crowds. 52,000 fans in the Philippine Arena… That would be awesome if we could ever do that again,” he said.
“I think we’re playing a Manila Clasico on Christmas Day, and I hope that we’re at capacity at that point – at least whatever the capacity is. It would be nice to have a capacity game.”
