LEO Austria acknowledged that his coaching success has a lot to do with the San Miguel Beermen.
The soft-spoken mentor said the team's dominance in the PBA the last six years since he took over the coaching reins is a testament to the talent and solid cohesion of the unit built around six-time MVP June Mar Fajardo.
As the old basketball saying goes, players win games, coaches lose them.
"Hindi magiging posible ito kung hindi sa kanila (Beermen)," said Austria, who only last week was named as the recipient of the 2019 Virgilio 'Baby' Dalupan Coach of the Year by the PBA Press Corps.
"I'm so thankful dahil sobrang blessed ako. Hindi ko naman alam na mangyayari ito sa akin."
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Besides the players, Austria also felt grateful to his coaching staff and management led by San Miguel Corp. President and COO Ramon S. Ang for always supporting him, through good times and the bad.
The Coach of the Year title was the fourth for Austria, making him now at no. 2 in the all-time list just behind five-time winner Chot Reyes.
But he doesn't mind where he stands in the league's all-time winning list in terms of coaching, since the thrust of the team is to win collectively and not individually.
"It's not my goal to win Coach of the Year, ang goal ko is for our team to be successful and to win a lot of championships," he stressed.
"Apat na beses (as Coach of the Year), that's because of the performance of the team. That's the goal of the team, to win many championships as it can," added Austria.
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Despite going into the PBA's 45th season without the injured Fajardo, Austria remained optimistic about San Miguel's campaign to extend its own record in the Philippine Cup of winning a sixth straight championship.
He said the Beermen have imbued a winning culture the past five seasons that Austria believes they will still be a very competitive unit even in the absence of the current 6-foot-10 MVP.
"Naging lifestyle na nila ito, and I hope mag-continue pa rin ito," he said. "Maganda ang na-develop ng team na ito, yung sinasabi nating 'samahang walang katulad,' yun ang namamayani dito."
San Miguel kicked off its All-Filipino title retention bid with a 94-78 rout of Magnolia on opening day of the new season last March 8.
Unfortunately, it's the only game played so far this year as the league decided to postpone the season indefinitely following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.(RG)
