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Jojo Lastimosa (left) and Tim Cone have received a number of championships along with Alaska. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Jojo Lastimosa was nonetheless having fun with his lunch earlier than the pre-Finals press convention of the PBA Governors’ Cup acquired underway on Monday when an influential determine from his previous walked by to say hi there.
“That’s a well-recognized voice,” mentioned Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone, poking enjoyable at his TNT counterpart’s behavior of speaking with meals on his mouth earlier than shaking fingers with him inside Novotel Manila in Cubao, Quezon Metropolis.
Lastimosa responded with a hearty chuckle, exhibiting the extent of consolation the 2 had in-built all these years after they had been gathering a number of championships for Alaska and turning the franchise into one of many league’s iconic groups within the Nineteen Nineties.
“We see one another in Tali Seaside (in Nasugbu, Batangas),” Cone later mentioned after the occasion, prompting Lastimosa to as soon as once more chuckle as loud on the inside joke.
“He lives within the North (of Metro Manila), I reside within the South, so it’s not like we join on a regular basis. However after we do, there’s a degree of comfortability that you possibly can be away for a very long time, and after we see one another, it’s like getting proper again at it once more,” he added.
This time, Cone and Lastimosa must chase the championship as opponents, with Ginebra looking for a 3rd successive title within the season-ending convention and TNT seeking to play get together poopers within the collection that begins on Easter Sunday.
‘Coming residence’
The mentor-against-student angle is among the many subplots of a collection that would go both manner, with TNT topping the eliminations and Ginebra again for one more crack at glory.
“It’s like coming residence,” mentioned Lastimosa. “I’m all the time comfy round Tim and there’s no animosity between the 2 of us. I’m simply so excited to be on the identical courtroom with Tim, and I’ve a lot respect for him as a result of he has accomplished a lot for the sport.”
“I’m simply right here to be taught, and because the collection goes on, I do know he’s a genius at that. So we’ll see the way it goes,” he added.
Lastimosa, tasked to deal with the TNT function with coach Chot Reyes opting to place most of his concentrate on the Gilas Pilipinas program for the Fiba (Worldwide Basketball Federation) World Cup, steered TNT to 10 wins in 11 elimination spherical video games earlier than shepherding the Tropang Giga to playoff victories over Phoenix and Meralco.
One in all TNT’s wins main up up to now was at Ginebra’s expense, the place the Tropang Giga erased a double-digit deficit to place collectively a 114-105 win final March 17 at PhilSports Area in Pasig Metropolis.
Cone and the Gin Kings will hope to make a giant response throughout the collection and preserve their dominant reign within the season-ending convention intact.
Few surprises
“Each win, if we do, is gonna be bittersweet,” Cone mentioned. “However we each acquired jobs to do, and we’re gonna do it to the perfect of our talents. There’s gonna be respect, I believe, on each side of the ground, however there’s gonna be intense, intense competitors.
“His group is basically hungry for a win, and we all know that; we perceive that [because] they performed like that every one convention lengthy. And there’s little doubt that there’s [also] numerous starvation in our group.
“I believe when you style it, you need extra of it. Our guys are able to go, and I’m one hundred pc certain their guys are able to go, too,” added Cone.
Lastimosa believes there might be few surprises as soon as TNT and Ginebra sq. off for the crown.
“Even earlier than I used to be right here, we had conversations with Tim concerning the system. Generally he takes out the Triangle [Offense], typically he takes it again in, typically he tweaks it,” Lastimosa mentioned. “So for me, there’s no secret right here.”
That’s until Cone brings out one thing that Lastimosa hasn’t seen earlier than. INQ
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