Six minutes may be too short of playing time for some, but that meant everything for Ginebra as it knows what it’s getting from LA Tenorio.
The 40-year-old saw action in Game 5 of the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Sunday night, leaving Coach Tim Cone in awe with the kind of commitment his long-time player has even at this point of his career.
“LA is always ready and he works so hard and practices every day,” the champion mentor said after their 73-66 win at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Even though he may not play, he’s still working. He’s 40, 41 years old and still working super hard in practice every day,” he furthered.
Cone brought in Tenorio — who last played during the semis versus NorthPort — to replace Scottie Thompson at the 1:49-mark of the third quarter.
It was at a time when both teams were going back and forth, but his entry hardly affected the Kings’ flow, providing quality minutes while their PG was out.
In fact, it was he who found Troy Rosario which led to the latter winning a foul and eventually nailing both freebies to tie it 60-all early in the final frame.
“I just felt that we weren’t executing as well as we could and that’s one thing that LA is, just really, really smart with his execution,” Cone said,
Tenorion would share backcourt duties with Thompson when the former league MVP was brought back in during Rosario’s trip to the foul line.
He would get subbed out with 7:48 to go in the game and the time he spent filling in for their starting PG indeed helped so much.
That’s because it enabled Thompson to rest and recover while his ‘Kuya LA’ was there on the floor, giving himself enough gas in the tank to fuel the Kings’ finishing rally en route to the 3-2 lead in the race-to-4 series.
Cone, of course, couldn’t express his gratitude enough for what the 19-year veteran brought to the Barangay those six minutes he played.
“He knows how to get the team into an execution and into spots and knows who to get the ball to and I just felt we were lacking at that point,” he said.
“I just turned to him, I said, ‘You ready to go?’ and he goes, ‘Yeah.’ I said ‘OK’ and I felt we needed a break for Scottie at that point as well.”
