TIM Cone is truly a certified PBA baby.
The Barangay Ginebra coach acknowledged that NBA made him love the sport of basketball, but stressed it was Asia's first ever play-for-pay league which had the biggest influence on him.
Cone made this disclosure Wednesday in a tweeter survey made by former player and now coach John Mietus where netizens were asked to name 'four guys that made me love basketball growing up.'
The two-time grand slam coach gamely joined the thread and in random wrote the names of NBA greats Nate Archibald, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird.
But in a separate post on his tweeter account, Cone said that's as far as the NBA is concerned.
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"I was actually more influenced by PBA players," the most accomplished coach in PBA history said.
He then rattled the names of Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Francis Arnaiz, and yes, Yoyong Martirez as the ones who influenced him the most while growing up in the Philippines.
While the 62-year-old Cone is a self-confessed fan of Jaworski and the Toyota Tamaraws, the coach has been vocal about idolizing the late legendary coach Virgilio 'Baby' Dalupan.
"Except for my father, the only person that I would want to emulate (was Baby Dalupan). You know in terms of life and in terms of accomplishments, in terms of the kind of person he was," said Cone in praising the so-called 'Maestro' of Philippine basketball. (RG)
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