BARANGAY Ginebra coach Tim Cone admitted he didn’t expect that his team would take home the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup title based on how the team looked like prior to the conference.
Cone said he didn’t even feel that Ginebra would make it to the playoffs with their line-up that had players injured and out of shape heading into the bubble.
The core of Ginebra entered the bubble with health issues with Japeth Aguilar, the finals MVP in the Governors’ Cup finals last season, and LA Tenorio joining the team late due to injuries. The Gin Kings didn’t even have Greg Slaughter in the roster after taking a sabbatical.
Despite all the uncertainty at the start of the bubble conference, Barangay Ginebra finished the campaign with the title in their hands, beating TNT in five games on Wednesday to capture the Philippine Cup crown.
“Honestly, I was talking to coach Kirk (Collier, assistant coach) just a few minutes ago. And we were saying to each other and laughing, we had no idea we are going to be in this situation,” said Cone.
“I remember coming in the bubble looking, we didn’t have Greg, we didn’t have Japeth, we didn’t have LA and I was saying to myself, ‘Can we even make the playoffs? Can we even prepare ourselves form being eliminated?’”
Cone said winning the first four games of the conference was huge to their campaign, with a lot of players stepping up in the likes of Stanley Pringle, Scottie Thompson, Prince Caperal, and even rookie Arvin Tolentino as the team waited for Aguilar and Tenorio to get back into their form.
The season was also grueling as the PBA compressed its Philippine Cup schedule to only two months so as the season won’t end around Christmas time.
Tenorio eventually won the Finals MVP crown following an offseason where he had a laparoscopy procedure on his appendix.
“And then, we went out and won our first four games. Prince Caperal stepped up and played well, Stanley carried us, Scottie played well, we had our rookie Arvin Tolentino carrying us as well. That kinda jettisoned to where we are now,” said Cone.
Ginebra exited the Smart Clark Giga City bubble on Thursday afternoon, and the Kings went back to Manila with a lot of memories to carry home.
“Looking back on it and go through all that we did to get to where we are, it made it so much sweeter,” Cone said.
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