PBA: The time Alaska ‘fired and rehired’ Tim Cone in 1993

For 20-plus years, Alaska and its longest-tenured coach, Tim Cone, built a strong partnership.

But back in the early years — in their 4th year together — the marriage appeared to be on the rocks.

Cone, the winningest coach in PBA history with 23 championships, was still in the early stages of making a name for himself and helping build a legacy for the fledgling basketball organization.

It wasn't easy, as right after winning their first championship for the franchise, Alaska experienced down times for the next 2 years.

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"That meeting that we had with Mr. (Wilfred) Uytengsu and Joaqui Trillo and myself. We planned this out. We said we're gonna go young and we want these guys to develop. That's what we did. We allowed them to develop," said Cone.

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Right after winning the Third Conference of the 1991 season with Sean Chambers playing his third season and Jojo Lastimosa teaming up with then resident superstar Bong Alvarez, Alaska hit rock bottom during the 1992 and 1993 season.

Alaska, with import Winston Crite, helped the Airmen to a 3rd place finish during the First Conference of the 1992 season, but struggled in the next 2 conferences.

In the All-Filipino, Alaska could only amass 2 wins out of 10 in the elimination round and ended up finishing 8th.

The season-ending 3rd conference was similarly disastrous, as Alaska couldn't get past the elimination round, winning only 5 of 12 games and ended up 6th place.

But those struggles were part of a rebuilding phase, and in 1993 Alaska suffered another lean season. Only once did the team reach the playoffs — in the Commissioner's Cup — and Alaska ended up 5th.

Cone and his troops won only 4 of 10 games and ended up 6th in the All-Filipino and the Governors' Cup.

That alarmed Alaska stakeholders, who wondered whether Cone was worth the investment.

"I was almost let go in '93. I was actually let go, probably for, maybe 15 minutes. I was fired and rehired in 15 minutes in '93," bared Cone. "The board in Alaska was dissatisfied with the way the thing was going. 'We were investing a lot of money, but we were not getting in returns of championships in 1992 and 1993.' Those were our lean years."

"Year 1993 was a very bad year. That was the year I tried to bring the triangle to Alaska."

Cone wasn't a hot commodity back then.

Here's a guy that was trying to make his mark in the PBA and was still looking to have his own identity.

The American coach was still trying to put together the winning pieces that would help the team become a dominant force in the years to come. And true enough, Uytengsu, Cone and then team manager Joaqui Trillo, worked out a vision to make Alaska a successful squad from there on.

"What you don't see anymore in basketball is its immediate gratification and you want to win right away. Back then, there was a sense of patience, Mr. Uytengsu had given," said Cone.

"Without that patience, we never would have get to where we were in 1994, 1995, 1996, when we became a dominant team. That all developed because we were patient from 1992 to 1993. He also allowed me to learn and implement the triangle, which was also a big thing."

Then the pieces slowly came in.

"We were still on a rebuilding phase. Right after the 1991 championship, we did that with a very young team, a young import in Sean Chambers. We were still building. We were trying to build mostly from the draft, so we needed our young players to develop. We drafted Alex Araneta, we got Bong Hawkins in a trade. Johnny was a rookie. Jojo (Lastimosa) was about 3 years with Alaska, so we have a very, very young core," said Cone.

"We added pieces as we moved along. Then we got Poch Juinio, Merwin Castello, Chris Bolado, and then, that game-changing trade with Bong Solomon for Ginebra for a draft pick and then we turned out getting Jeff Cariaso."

But had Cone and Alaska parted ways early, one could only imagine whether the organization would have enjoyed the same success as it had when the team became the most dominant squad in the 1990s and to date, had won a total of 14 championships.

Looking back, Cone had no intentions of leaving Alaska in the early stages of their marriage.

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"I never had any thoughts of leaving Alaska in my first 20 years. I was married to Alaska. That organization is all about family and loyalty. I bought into it, everybody bought into it. It was a beautiful organization to be on for 20-plus years," said Cone.

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"But I was not recruited at that time. If I had been fired by Alaska in 1993, I don't know what am I going to do at that point."

Both Cone and Alaska eventually went on their separate ways.

Cone won 10 more championships, handling the old Purefoods franchise, which he led to 5 titles and a grand slam in 2014, then Barangay Ginebra, the most popular team, which he guided to 5 more titles.

Alaska went on to win its lone championship in the post-Cone era which happened during the 2013 Commissioner's Cup and came close to winning titles, entering the championship round five more times, while still searching for the elusive No. 15, a few more months before it bid goodbye to the PBA.

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