CHICAGO - I love coach Tim Cone. Still do. Always will.
But the burning flame of worship and appreciation for his legendary conquests at Alaska and Ginebra just cooled off a few degrees lower.
My beef is his blind loyalty to embattled Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes.
"I've been with this program for a year now and I really believe that he is still the best man for the job," Cone said in an interview with Carlo Pamintuan.
Cone stands behind Chot, says no desire to take over Gilas job
What?
How could you say that, coach Tim?
This FIBA World Cup 2023 is ongoing, but we are reduced to being useless participants because Gilas is 0-4.
We got pushed around by a rebuilding, lower-ranked South Sudan team last night. And we just lost a slot in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
MEA CULPA
In fairness to Reyes, he already apologized to MVP and embraced "responsibility" and "accountability" for this unbearable mess.That to me is a tacit admission of failure.
But Cone insists otherwise.
In the report, Cone said he believes "Reyes did an excellent job in the World Cup considering what they had to go through."
This is disappointing, to a point that I may never look at Cone the same way ever again.
How can a man with two grand slam titles and 25 PBA championships to his name have such a twisted, anomalous view of what excellence means?
I've been writing words for a living since 1993, and in my humble opinion, an 0-4 record that has sent an entire nation in mourning is not good, never mind excellent.
"I think that the steps he (Reyes) has taken are correct and we've never really been out of the game," Cone said, building sandbags to his sloppy argument.
WE WANT WINS, NOT EXCUSES FOR LOSES.
Look, silver linings are for losers. Lost games shouldn't be glorified. We are in this thing to win it, not just compete. We are not interested in participation trophies.
"In the Philippines, you have 110 million coaches," Cone said in what I think is a shade on fans who are critical of Reyes.
Gilas fans have been tortured for years, Tim, leave them alone with their hurt. Feel free to placate Chot but don't do it while ignoring the feelings of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos.
"Being an assistant coach here, I'm the one who sees it up close and I think he's done a great job," Cone added, kind of telling us we don't know what we're talking about.
Yes, Tim, you saw up close but you never saw the Dominicans, the Angolans and the South Sudanese coming. Sadly sir, you are a huge part of this 0-4 problem.
Cone said he stays away from social media. Maybe he should take a deep, careful dive in there so he'll hear what the fans are saying. That way, Tim wouldn't be so tone deaf.
While Cone's defense of Chot fell flat, I get it.
They are friends and friendships make us look at an ugly 0-4 record with rose-colored glasses.
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