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This Day in PBA History: New era begins for Ginebra

Article (news)

Rey Joble

It took seven years in the making for Barangay Ginebra to finally end its series of miserable campaigns.A seven-year title drought and underachievements marred the Gin KIngs&#x27; campaign since they won the title in the 2009 Fiesta Conference, but since then, they failed to live up to fans&#x27; expectations even if they kept on upgrading their roster year after year.The Gin Kings figured that maybe it&#x27;s time to bring in the right man on the wheel and the team did just that by tapping the winningest coach in PBA history -- Tim Cone.Cone, the only coach to win two grand slams while handling separate teams -- Alaska and San Mig Coffee of the old Purefoods franchise -- quickly changed the fortunes of the squad that couldn&#x27;t live up to its potential.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/11/22/tim-cones-heat-coaching-stint-on-the-spotlight">Tim Cone&#x27;s Heat coaching stint on the spotlight</a></li></ul>In a span of six years, the Gin Kings won six championships.Looking back on this day in PBA history, July 23, 2015, Cone felt being named as Ginebra coach was the biggest shock of his coaching career.&quot;It was a shock,&quot; Cone said. &quot;All those years of battling Sonny Jaworski when I was with Alaska, Ginebra was our big rival. Whenever we circled that on our schedule, we&#x27;re gonna be ready for that game. That was our most important game in our schedule.&quot;&quot;It never developed as some sort of a rivalry -- Alaska and Ginebra.&quot;But Cone admitted how he was a big Jaworski fan ever since The Big J was still playing for Meralco all the way to his time as a Toyota player, and later on, with Ginebra, where he became playing coach.When Cone entered the PBA as a young coach in 1989, he would relish every battle with The Living Legend of Philippine Basketball. Three times in their coaching career, Cone and Jaworski would face off.In the 1991 Third Conference, Alaska won its first ever championship when it defeated Jaworski and the Gin Kings in four games of their best-of-five championship series.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/06/21/22/cone-laments-ginebras-lack-of-energy-against-magnolia">PBA: Cone laments Ginebra&#x27;s lack of energy against Magnolia</a></li></ul>Alaska and Ginebra would meet again in the 1996 Governors&#x27; Cup that allowed the Milkmen to complete a grand slam season.Jaworski would finally put one over Cone and Alaska in the 1997 Commissioner&#x27;s Cup, leading Gordon&#x27;s Gin to a five-game victory in their best-of-seven championship series.Years after Jaworski retired as coach of Ginebra, Cone was able to develop a much heated rivalry when the American mentor handled the old Purefoods franchise and the rivalry even had a more marketing appeal coined during those battles.&quot;Then, I started coaching Purefoods,&quot; added Cone. &quot;So there&#x27;s the Manila Clasico. Purefoods has been the big rival of Ginebra in all those years. All those years against Ginebra, with Alaska, I&#x27;m a rival, with Purefoods, I&#x27;m a rival and then suddenly, I&#x27;m coaching a Ginebra team.&quot;&quot;I cannot remember how many people would come to me and tell me, &#x27;Coach, I used to hate you. But now, I love you because you are with Ginebra.&#x27;.&quot;<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/06/21/22/chot-adds-tim-cone-to-gilas-coaching-staff">Chot taps long-time buddy, ex-mentor Cone as part of Gilas coaching staff</a></li></ul>In his third conference with his new team, Cone led the team to a title run capped by Justin Brownlee&#x27;s game-winning, three-point basket in Game 6 of the Governors&#x27; Cup finals series against the Meralco Bolts.Cone brought Brownlee back for another tour of duty and it was the same result, allowing the Gin Kings to defend the Governors&#x27; Cup.The following season, Ginebra brought Brownlee much earlier than expected and led the league&#x27;s most popular team to winning the Commissioner&#x27;s Cup against San Miguel in six games.Although Brownlee and the Gin Kings failed to defend the Governors&#x27; Cup in the 2018 season, he returned the next year and Ginebra defeated Meralco in five.Year 2020 was a challenging year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the PBA was forced to hold its first bubble tournament in Pampanga, but Cone was able to bring the best out of his troops in the unlikeliest situation and Ginebra went on to win the only tournament played that year -- the Philippine Cup.When the PBA came up with a two-conference format in 2021, the Gin Kings were able to bring in their old reliable, Brownlee, back in action, and it took awhile before the resident reinforcement rediscovered his old deadly form to give his team its sixth championship under Cone.Summing up all those successful runs with Ginebra, Cone could never imagine he&#x27;ll be able to handle the league&#x27;s crowd darling.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/16/22/whatever-happened-to-2-time-pba-champion-coach-perry-ronquillo">WHATEVER HAPPENED TO: 2-time PBA champion coach Perry Ronquillo</a></li></ul>&quot;I had no clue,&quot; he added. &quot;There was no warning. There wasn&#x27;t a rumor or anything. It was simply that I walked into a conference room and they told me, after an hour in the conference room, talking about millions of different things, and they told me, &#x27;by the way, you&#x27;re the coach of Ginebra now.&#x27;&quot;&quot;I&#x27;m like, &#x27;What?&#x27; I remember calling my wife and she was in Tacloban. It was after a typhoon and she was doing charity work out there and I called her up and told her, &#x27;You&#x27;ll never believe this.&#x27; She said, &#x27;what&#x27;? Then I told her, &#x27;I&#x27;m now the Coach of Ginebra.&#x27;Call it a dream come true, Cone, once regarded as Ginebra&#x27;s Public Enemy No.1, is now on the steering wheel and he had driven Ginebra to six championships and now regarded as the most successful mentor of the franchise.

It took seven years in the making for Barangay Ginebra to finally end its series of miserable campaigns.