TIM Cone has had the privilege of handling a lot of players who won championships, became MVP, and went on to become PBA greats in their own right.
But out of these select group, only one stood out on top.
Heck, he’s even the smallest of them all.
The legendary coach named Johnny Abarrientos the best player he ever coached in his more than 30 years of calling the shots from the sidelines, be it with Alaska, Purefoods, or with Barangay Ginebra.
The 5-foot-7 ace playmaker was the anchor of Alaska’s 1996 grand slam team and for almost a decade, served as the perfect extension of Cone inside the court.
So much so the 63-year-old coach described Abarrientos as the most ‘intuitive player I’ve been around.’
“I’ve always said the one player I’ve never coached was Johnny Abarrientos. I’ve never coached him. I just let him play,” shared Cone in a special guest appearance in the SPIN.ph ZOOM In.
“He just shows up in practice and did his thing, got in the game and did his thing. I never coached him. He was just so totally instinctive, and knew what the right plays were all the time.”

Cone was already at the helm of Alaska when the franchise selected the wily point guard out of Far Eastern University with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1993 draft.
It only took a year before Abarrientos would win the first of the nine championships he won with the team starting in the 1994 Governors Cup.
But it was the 96 season that really proved to be the highlight of his playing career following a sweep by Alaska of all the three conferences at stake, topped by Abarrientos winning the MVP plum. He became the first player under Cone to win the league’s highest individual award.
Recalling his days with his top playmaker, Cone said Abarrientos was the perfect combination of a player.
“He was a tremendous teammate, tremendous work ethic, tremendously skilled with what he can do in terms of his size. He was a totally all-around player, defensively, offensively, passing, rebounding. He was a great rebounding guard like Scottie Thompson. He can shoot it. He was our best shooter,” said the man who owned the most number of PBA championships won by a coach with 23.

Cone said the one thing that was lacking in Abarrientos back then was his three-point shooting, which the coach noted, the now deputy mentor of Magnolia would develop later on in his career.
“Three-point shooting was not a big deal back in those days. But as he got older, he developed his three-point shot. But there was no need to develop his three-point shot.”
Cone holds his former player in high esteem that he stressed he wouldn’t miss him out whenever he’ll be asked of his all-time starting five in Asia’s pioneering pro league.
“I tell you, if there’s one guy who needs to be in the list I that I ever put out there, it’s Johnny Abarrientos. Johnny would be on any list. I’ll choose Johnny at No. 1,” said the Barangay Ginebra mentor.
It wasn’t surprising therefore when Cone also recalled the most difficult trade he had in his 32-year coaching career, it’s the one that involved Abarrientos.
“That trade of Johnny and Poch (Juinio) was by far the most difficult trade I had to make,” he said. “Looking back on it, I love Ali (Peek) and I love Jon Ordonio, but I had to admit at this point, looking back, it was the worst trade I ever made.
“It was a combination of both. It was the hardest, and then it turned out to be the worse.”
Both Abarrientos and Juinio were sent by Alaska to Pop Cola for Peek and Ordonio in 2001. After a season, Pop Cola was brought by Coca-Cola where the two went on and won two more championships with the franchise under coach Chot Reyes.
“Johnny had a lot more years left, and so did Poch,” added Cone. “When we traded Johnny and Poch, that took us to another direction. And it’s a direction we wouldn’t want to go to. It took us quite a while for us to recover from that trade.”
By all those accounts, no doubt Abarrientos will and always be the best player Cone has ever handled.
“To me he was the best player in the PBA, all-time,” he stressed.
“It’s hard for me to say that when I have Mon Fernandez, June Mar Fajardo, Alvin Patrimonio. I know it’s hard to say that. So I just say Johnny is the best that I had been around.”
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