Tim Cone and Chot Reyes basically grew up together in coaching that it may sound like an understatement to say that they’re familiar with one another.
And their level of cognizance with each other, whether be it styles or quirks or everything in between, may play a factor in their chess match that is the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup Finals series featuring TNT and Ginebra.
“That will definitely play, the fact that we have worked together in the past,” said Cone during Thursday’s pre-Finals presser at The Atrium at Enderun
“Whether it be Gilas or not Gilas, it’s just the idea that we’ve been around and friends for so long and I think we’ve spent time studying each other’s game.”
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Cone and Reyes, who first worked together with Alaska more than three decades ago, have actually faced each other a few times in the playoffs since the latter came back to the league in 2021 after nearly a decade away.
But the upcoming best-of-7 title bout, set to open on Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, will be their first PBA Finals duel in 12 years.
It will also be a tiebreaker between the close pals. Their head-to-head in a championship battle stands at 3-3, with Cone the winner in their last meeting when he led B-Meg past Talk N Text to annex the 2012 Commissioner’s Cup.
It has been over a decade since and both men have grown further on their own coaching-wise, yet they still understand each other very well — most especially after working together just last year in coaching Gilas Pilipinas together.
That national team flair is actually among the interesting storylines of this Finals tiff as the past and present of the men’s program collide, bannered of course by its former and present bench tacticians on opposite ends of the court.
Thus, Cone’s belief.
(C) PBA Images
“I think the familiarity will play in this series at some point, just because he knows what I like to do, and I’ve learned what he likes to do,” said the 65-year-old, who’s gunning for his 25th league championship.
Reyes, however, begs to differ a bit, for he heads into this series representing TNT, the franchise he helped mold into perennial contendership status.
“The Gilas factor… I don’t know if it will be that much of a differentiator in the series, aside from that similarity,” he said. “But other than that, I’m approaching this series as TNT. And I’m sure Tim is approaching this series as GInebra.
“After the series, we can all go back to being Gilas, or former Gilas,” the six-time Coach of the Year said.
“But for this series, this is TNT and Ginebra.”
