Cone: Mission accomplished!

TIM Cone completed the mission he failed to accomplish 25 years ago in Bangkok, Thailand.

Cone, serving as Gilas Pilipinas’ interim coach, went through all the challenges of preparing a national side that only had 12 days to train and try to win the gold medal for the 19th Asian Games men’s basketball.

Gilas Pilipinas AFP PHOTO 

While the team went through its own set of challenges, that include admitting five new players with less than a week before the start of the competition, Gilas did the improbable by beating erstwhile unbeaten Jordan, 70-60, in the Asian Games men’s basketball final to finally, bring the gold back to the country after a 61-year title drought.

“After beating Iran by a point, then finding a way with that miraculous win over China by one point, just an unexplainable feeling we now have, seemingly coming from nowhere to win this gold medal,” Cone told media men during the post-game interview posted by One Sports on Friday night, October 6.

“We know this means so much [to Filipino fans]. We are passionate about basketball. And for us to be able to do that for our countrymen was such a huge thing. We can’t wait to get home and share it with them when we get back.”

The American mentor, who made a name for himself as the PBA’s all-time winningest coach with 25 championships and counting, entered the tournament as the last coach to have given the Philippines a medal when the national squad, known as the Centennial team, took home the bronze in the 1998 edition in Bangkok, Thailand.

Twenty-five years later though, this new bunch of national players, led by naturalized player Justin Brownlee, backstopped by June Mar Fajardo, Chris Newsome, Ange Kouame, Scottie Thompson and Calvin Oftana, showed a “no-quit” mentality that enabled Gilas Pilipinas to knock out powerhouse squads en route to winning the gold.

After the Philippines got its behind kicked by Jordan, 87-62, at the close of the group play a week ago, Gilas had to go through a knockout phase to make it to the quarterfinal.

The Filipinos disposed of the Qataris, 80-41, to barge into the quarterfinal, kicking off its series of knockout games in high gear.

Gilas then built a double-digit spread before weathering Iran’s massive fourth-quarter rally to prevail, 84-83, booking a semifinal spot in the process.

Come the knockout semifinal, Gilas fell by as many as 20 points in the first half. But Brownlee led the Philippines’ gutsy second-half uprising, dropping 27 of his game-high 33 points, including the game-winning triple to lift the national team to a pulsating 77-76 triumph against host China.

The win left the Chinese stunned as the Filipinos, just a month after dealing this same team a 96-75 beating at the close of the 2023 FIBA World Cup classification, advanced to the gold medal round and set up a grudge match against the Jordanians for the gold.

“We played a great game tonight. We played our best game of the tournament,” said Cone, remarking on Gilas’ defense, which held Jordan to an abysmal 18-of-69 field goal shooting in the knockout final game for just 26 percent.