Coach Tim Cone gave flowers to his deputies for keeping Barangay Ginebra sharp while he and the other core members were away for Gilas duties.
The PBA’s winningest mentor tipped his hat to Olsen Racela and Kirk Collier for their efforts in making sure that the remaining Kings won’t get rusty during the two-week break the league imposed to give way to the Nationals.
“For the quick turnaround, I thought Olsen and Coach Kirk Collier did such a fantastic job with the guys over the last two weeks preparing them,” he said.
Fans and pundits alike felt that Ginebra — especially its stars — would head into the Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals with heavy legs after Gilas went to three countries as part of their preparations for the FIBA Asia Cup,
After playing in a pocket tilt in Qatar, the Filipino dribblers then went to Taiwan and New Zealand for Window 3 of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
But while in the midst of those trips, Racela and Collier remained busy managing practices for the Barangay, and they even managed to squeeze in a tuneup game with a visiting Korean team according to Cone.
And their solid form was put on display in Game 1 Wednesday as they beat the top-seeded NorthPort, 115-93, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Justin Brownlee, Japeth Aguilar, and Jamie Malonzo still contributed significantly to the win, but the national team stalwarts no longer logged heavy minutes. Instead, Cone and his staff found themselves pieces good enough to rotate.
RJ Abarrientos best exemplified Ginebra’s sharpness as he finished with 15 points, spiked by a 3-of-3 clip from three, six rebounds, and seven assists.
“I walked into practice and like RJ, Stephen [Holt], everybody was just raring to go,” said Cone, who returned to Manila along with Gilas on Tuesday morning.
“That was important for us because we didn’t want to overplay Justin and Japeth and Scottie so the fact that they were able to stay sharp like that and give those guys a break was really important,” he added.
