Chot Reyes, Tim Cone downplay coaching battle as TNT, Ginebra vie for PBA crown
MANILA, Philippines – Chot Reyes and Tim Cone face off in the finals for the first time in 12 years as defending champion TNT and Barangay Ginebra vie for the PBA Governors’ Cup crown.
It will be an intriguing tactical war between two of the best coaches in the PBA, who have won a combined 34 titles and have held the coaching reins for the national team, with Cone replacing Reyes as Gilas Pilipinas’ current shot caller.
But both coaches would rather want the discussion of the best-of-seven finals — which kicks off on Sunday, October 27, at the Ynares Center in Antipolo — to be about their players.
“In the end, I think it will come down to how the players execute and the team that’s able to exert their own style of play and their will on the basketball court,” Reyes said during the finals press conference on Thursday, October 24.
“I know there’s a lot of talk about me and Tim, but I’m sure he will agree, in the end, the players are going to determine how the outcome of the series is going to be.”
The title duel features a rematch of the Governors’ Cup finals in 2023, which saw the Tropang Giga dethrone the Gin Kings in six games.
It marked the first time Ginebra lost in the finals of an import conference with Justin Brownlee as Rondae Hollis-Jefferson — the Best Import winner — powered TNT to a breakthrough Governors’ Cup championship.
With Brownlee and Hollis-Jefferson figuring in another clash of elite imports, the finals promise to be a classic one.
“It’s not going to come down to me and Chot. It’s going to come down to Rondae and Justin and the players around them. They’re going to be the ones to decide this series and that’s how it should be,” Cone said.
Reyes and Cone meet in the finals for the seventh time as they renew their friendly coaching rivalry that started three decades ago.
After the two steered now-defunct Alaska to its first-ever title in the 1991 Third Conference, with Cone as head coach and Reyes as his deputy, they parted ways and carved out their own coaching paths.
They met in the finals for the first time in the 1994 Commissioner’s Cup as Reyes’ Purefoods beat Cone’s Alaska, 4-1.
Five more title encounters between the two followed in the next two decades, the latest coming in the 2012 Commissioner’s Cup, where Cone’s B-Meg outlasted Reyes’ Talk ‘N Text in an epic seven-game tiff that went the distance.
As they tangle again with a championship on the line, Cones said their familiarity with each other will play a factor.
“[He] knows what I like to do and I’ve learned what he likes to do,” Cone said. “[We’ve] been around, been friends for so long, we spent time studying each other.”
Since Reyes won that first championship battle, the two have alternated wins as his finals record against Cone stands at an even 3-3.
But Reyes, who is seeking a 10th crown as a head coach, said all he cares about is the task at hand.
“I don’t look at the past. For me, it’s just about what’s in front of me right now, the present. Just very, very happy to be here, playing against a tough team,” Reyes said. – Rappler.com