Tim Cone is the most decorated head coach in Philippine Basketball Association history, boasting 25 championships in his illustrious career.
But the 67-year-old would be the first to admit that coaching a club team is vastly different from leading a national squad.
“I’m still learning about international basketball, particularly how difficult travel and road games are. In the PBA, we don’t really play on the road. We’re always here, sleeping in our own beds, so our players aren’t used to it,” Cone shared after Barangay Ginebra’s 115-93 win over NorthPort in the 2025 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals.
“Japan and Korea have more experience with back-to-back games, but for me, personally, it was overwhelming. I was dizzy and blurry-eyed from all the travel. I’m not a young guy anymore, so it took a toll.”
Cone’s first stint as a national team head coach was in 1998, leading the Philippine Centennial Team.
Back then, international competitions had a more straightforward format.
The squad only played in two tournaments—the William Jones Cup in Taiwan and the Asian Games in Bangkok—both held at fixed venues. There was only one overseas camp which was held in the US a full year prior before the team was a guest squad in the PBA.
Even in his returns prior, his experience was relatively stable, with Gilas playing exclusively in Pasay for the 30th Southeast Asian Games and in Hangzhou, China, for the 2023 Asian Games.
However, the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers presented an entirely new challenge.
Windows 1 and 2 were manageable—games were held in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. But Window 3 simulated the grueling nature of a World Cup qualifying campaign.
Cone mapped out an exhausting itinerary: three games in three days from February 15-17 in Doha, Qatar, a brief return to Manila, a matchup against Chinese Taipei in Taipei on February 20, followed by another long-haul flight to Auckland, New Zealand, for a final game three days later.
Unsurprisingly, the schedule took its toll.
(C) Qatar Basketball Federation
“If I have one regret, it’s that I didn’t rest Justin (Brownlee), June Mar (Fajardo), Scottie (Thompson), and AJ (Edu) in one full game in Doha. I should have kept them out completely in Game 2. Maybe we shouldn’t have played them against Egypt and just saved them for Lebanon. But we wanted to win so badly—we didn’t want to get embarrassed. And in the end, we got embarrassed anyway. Halfway through the game, I realized, ‘What am I doing keeping Justin and Scottie out there when we still have to play Taiwan and New Zealand?’ That’s why we pulled them out early and didn’t play them anymore,” Cone admitted, acknowledging how Gilas’ heavy losses to Lebanon and Egypt in the 2nd Doha International Cup impacted team morale.
“Well, I can’t emphasize enough how hard the trip was. The journey was 10 hours, plus a five-hour time zone difference. Coming back was another 10 hours, and then we had to go to Taiwan, play, and unfortunately, lose a game. After losing to Taiwan, we were devastated,” he said, recalling Gilas’ shocking 91-84 defeat in Taipei.
“Then we had to fly three hours from Taiwan to Hong Kong, sit around in the airport, then take another 10-hour flight to New Zealand. We arrived at one o’clock in the morning. Actually, we got there at noon or one in the afternoon, and we had to practice at three, then play the next day at three. On top of that, these guys were all flying economy. They’re 6’10”, taking multiple flights in economy, and I didn’t foresee how tough that would be. I knew it would be hard, but it was much harder than I expected. The fact that they fought through it all, played hard, and endured foreign beds, economy flights, and a single practice in New Zealand is incredible. We didn’t even have a shootaround because it was too close to game time. We just had one practice before the game,” Cone shared.
“They battled through it, and it was a great experience in terms of learning to push through adversity. This is something we’ll have to deal with in the future.”
(C) FIBA.basketball
Now, armed with this experience, Cone understands the grind of the FIBA windows and what adjustments need to be made moving forward.
He knows exactly what to do in preparing Gilas for the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup and the World Cup qualifiers—balancing training, travel, and player conditioning.
Next on Gilas’ calendar is the FIBA Asia Cup proper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from August 5-17, followed by the first window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers from November 24-December 2.
“As for future plans, I think there’s an idea to go to Qatar again, play one or two games to adjust to the time zone, then head to Jeddah, which is only about an hour and a half away. But one thing’s for sure—we won’t travel the same way again,” he stressed.
“We won’t play three games in a row and then endure brutal travel. If we do travel, it will be within the same time zone. We might even prioritize practice over playing extra games because, once we were on the road, we only had two practices in total.”
