BARANGAY Ginebra makes its debut in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner's Cup on Wednesday in a game against NLEX - a good two weeks since the import-laden, midseason conference started on November 27.
The Gin Kings are the last team to see action in the conference, getting their feet wet much later than even the TNT Tropang Giga who beat them in six hard-fought games for the Season 49 Governors' Cup championship.
READ Troy debut, Brownlee return highlight Ginebra debut vs NLEX
The newly crowned Governors' Cup champs made their debut five days earlier in a Dec. 6 game against Eastern. In fact, the Tropang Giga's game against Magnolia, also on Tuesday, will already be their third of the conference.
So is it unfair to TNT?
Not at all, say league insiders who said the longer two-week break was given to Ginebra in deference to head coach Tim Cone, who along with some members of his staff took on Gilas Pilipinas duty immediately after the Governors' Cup Finals.
Aside from Cone, other Ginebra personnel also involved in Gilas' campaign in the last Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers against New Zealand and Hong Kong were his chief deputy Richard del Rosario, players LA Tenorio (assistant coach), Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar and Justin Brownlee, as well as its team governor Alfrancis Chua, who is Gilas program director.
For TNT, it's lone Gilas representative is Calvin Oftana.
However, league sources said the longer break given to Ginebra is not so much for the players but for Cone and his staff, who had to jump straight to national duty after a draining PBA finale against TNT.
Besides, Ginebra will be the busiest league team upon its return. It is set to play five games in a span of 10 days - NLEX on Wednesday, Phoenix on Friday, Eastern on Sunday, Terrafirma on Dec. 18 and Converge on Dec. 21 in Batangas - before the Christmas Day 'clasico' against Magnolia.
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