TIM Cone believes Stanley Pringle is worthy of the Best Player of the Conference award in the recently concluded PBA bubble season given the way he carried Barangay Ginebra from start to finish of the Philippine Cup.
And if ever Pringle gets the award, the champion coach sees more individual honors coming the way of the prolific scoring guard.
“If Stanley gets it, he’s certainly be deserving and we’ll certainly be happy for him,” said Cone, who recently turned 63.
“It won’t be his first MVP and it won’t be his last MVP.”
Owing to the bubble season, the league decided againt naming a regular MVP. It will instead give away the Best Player of the Conference as its highest individual honor for the all-Filipino conference.
Pringle, 33, finished No. 6 in the players’ statistics (34.8 sps), but is in strong contention for the BPC plum after Ginebra won the championship at the expense of TnT Tropang Giga.
The 6-foot-1 Ginebra guard led the Kings in scoring during the finals with a 19.6 points average. He also had 4.6 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and shot a high 40-percent clip from three-point range while logging 39 minutes of play per game.
Pringle also contended for the Honda-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP award, which he lost to backcourt mate LA Tenorio.
TnT sophomore guard Ray Parks Jr. topped the players statistical race with 38.2 sps, but was never a factor in the best-of-seven finals the moment he went down with a strained left calf shortly after the team’s 104-110 overtime loss in Game One.
Newly re-signed Phoenix forward Calvin Abueva finished second with 37.1 sps, followed by CJ Perez of Terrafirma (35.7 sps), Abueva’s Phoenix teammate Matthew Wright (35.6), and TnT gunner Roger Pogoy (35.6).
Two other Barangay Ginebra players in Japeth Aguilar (32.9 sps) and Scottie Thompson (32.8 sps) made it to the Top 10 at No. 8 and 9, respectively.
While Cone sees a lot of other players also deserving of the award, he insisted that Pringle is the most worthy.
“He’s such an outstanding player and he would be totally deserving,” said the most accomplished coach in PBA history.
Cone stressed, though, the Kings are more about winning together as a team. And once the wins come in, individual awards will just follow.
“Basketball is such a team game, and we really try to impress that on our players,” said the veteran mentor. “But it’s not something that I think he’s (Pringle) focused on. Usually you get those MVP awards because you win.”
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