TIM Cone and his Barangay Ginebra squad failed to reach the championship round for the second straight conference and the winningest coach in PBA history could only admit that they lost to a better team in San Miguel Beer, which ousted the league’s most popular squad in those two semifinal round exits.
The only coach to ever win two grand slams in the Philippine Basketball Association also had the most number of championships with 25, so seeing him competing in the finals is customary.
Prior to missing the semifinal round of the last two conferences, Cone had only missed the championship round once — and it happened during the 2023-2024 season — when the league opted to have only two conferences to give way for Gilas Pilipinas’ preparations for the FIBA World Cup and the Asian Games.
Since bursting into the PBA coaching scene midway the 1989 season, Cone has coached three teams — Alaska Milk, where he won his first grand slam in 1996, and 13 championships; San Mig Coffee of the old Purefoods franchise where he collected five titles, capped by a grand slam in 2014; and Barangay Ginebra with seven titles.
With all those accomplishments, people might be curious to know if there was a time when Cone got fired from coaching a team?
Actually, yes.
Cone, just like most of the great coaches, was fired by his childhood friend and long-time Alaska boss, Fred Uytengsu, during the 1993 season.
That was two years after Alaska won its first ever championship in the season-ending conference of the 1991 season.
“I remember that time, I was called for a meeting by Mr. Uytengsu as the team wasn’t performing well,” said Cone.
“I was fired. But about a few minutes later, I was rehired. So I got fired, and eventually, got rehired. One of the biggest challenges of my career.”
In 1993, the Alaska team was on a rebuilding stage.
They traded away their veteran guards to make room for point guard Johnny Abarrientos, the team’s third overall pick of the 1993 season, as Cone envisioned him to dominate the position and make an immediate impact.
But the team could only reach as far as the semifinal round of the Commissioner’s Cup back at a time when there was still no Final Four and the top five teams at the end of the elimination round played in a double round robin format.
Alaska got eliminated in the Philippine Cup as it went out with a 4-6 card, the same record it posted in the season-ending Governors’ Cup.
The Milkmen were coming off a turbulent season when Bong Alvarez, Jojo Lastimosa’s co-star player, was sitting out most of the games due to a contract dispute in 1993.
“He was sitting out at that time because of the contract dispute,” added Cone. “So we moved Bong for another Bong — Bong Hawkins,” said Cone. “It was the top management of both squads, Mr. Uytengsu and Mr. Buddy Encarnado, who negotiated and made the deal possible.”
With Hawkins joining the squad, Alaska was still trying to build its own identity as the team struggled, leading to Cone’s firing. This was the pre-triangle offense era, when the team was in search of its own personality.
But with no other coach on top of his mind to entrust the team, Uytengsu then decided to give Cone, who started his career in the PBA working as a game analyst during the 1988 season, another opportunity.
The move turned out to be a huge success for the organization as Cone went on to win 13 of the 14 crowns collected by Alaska.
Looking back at Cone’s stellar career, there was even a long dry spell for Alaska. They were without a title from 2004 to 2009 until the Aces’ championship run in 2010.
A year later, Cone moved out of the organization, like a long marriage which ended in separation.
