By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was left fuming over the last second layup of Converge super rookie Juan Gomez de Liano in the Kings’ 106-96 loss to the FiberXers.
The veteran mentor was seen confronting Converge head coach Dennis Pineda and then refused to shake hands with some of the FiberXers players on his way to the dugout.
Though appearing in front of the media with a cooler head, Cone explained that he was not happy with what happened.
Make no mistake though, the veteran mentor understood that teams need to score more for quotient in case of ties but not when the FiberXers seemingly already relaxed in the final seconds before deciding to go for another basket.
“I wasn’t happy about that last play when they took that last lay-up after relaxing. They relaxed like they’re not going to do it and then they did lay-up,” said Cone.
Converge did initially look like it would just let the shot clock to run out before Pineda gave instructions to Gomez de Liano to go for one more basket
Pineda, for his part, explained that the basket was meant to add insult to injury but to simply go for the quotient since the middle part of the standings is packed and there are chances that they could end up tied at the end of the eliminations.
“Hindi ba quotient tayo? And baka may chance na mag-meet kami (Ginebra) sa huli. That’s why I gave a go-signal kay Juan to score. Hindi malayong mangyari, tama po di ba?,” said Pineda.
Pineda, however, didn’t make a big deal over Cone’s post-game rant.
“Hindi ko na inintindi. Tumawa na lang ako. Part po ng game yun and maintindihan din po niya at the end of the day,” said Pineda, who added that he apologized for the call even to Barangay Ginebra governor Alfrancis Chua.
“Even kay Gov Al nag-sorry din ako, and I explained to Gov Al yung ruling natin ngayon. Quotient tayo, no knockout so important every point,” he added.
