The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) finally announced the appointment of Tim Cone as permanent coach of the Gilas Pilipinas men's basketball team on Monday evening.
The announcement came after plenty of speculation, in the wake of Cone himself confirminf he had met with SBP top brass over a fortnight ago.
The announcement couldn't come soon enough, since Gilas plays Hong Kong in their first game of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers on Feb. 22.
"Coach Tim accomplished what has not been done in decades with only a few weeks to prepare and multiple challenges in terms of personnel so we're excited to see what he can accomplish with a long-term program in place especially if such program is supported by all basketball stakeholders," said SBP president Al Panlilio in a statement.
Meanwhile, Cone said: "I'm looking forward to taking on the role of national team head coach again. I've always firmly believed from back in 1998 when I coached the Centennial Team that you've got to go out and get the brest players in the country to represent us.
"We all have different opinions on who the best players are but we're confident we picked the best players who will form the best team."
A Cone appointment was always going be the wise choice. Here are four reasons why.
It's Tim Cone
Being a 25-time PBA champion and five-time Coach of the Year is sure to put you on a pedestal in the eyes of players.
In league history, perhaps only Sonny Jaworski commanded more respect from his troops. Even foreign coaches admire him, and he's already something of a legend in the Asian coaching circuit.
Cone has a reputation of being as straight a shooter as one can be, which goes a long way in player-coach relations. It's doubtful that any player, pro or amateur, would have the guts to say no to him if asked to join the Gilas pool.
He's not polarizing
The two things the Gilas men's basketball program needs right now are stability and calm.
With due respect to Chot Reyes, his two-year run was arguably the most toxic in Gilas history.
Every misstep was magnified, every substitution pattern over-analyzed, every lost game criticized by armchair coaches. Even Reyes' Thom Browne suits for the World Cup were panned.
Because he's so amiable and all smiles off the court, Cone will attract none of that negative toxicity.
For the most part, fans weren't overly critical of Gilas even after they got blown out by Jordan in the preliminary stage of the Asian Games or after they nearly squandered a 20-point lead against Iran in the quarterfinals.
And even when he does mess up, he almost always takes the blame right away, giving critics little ammunition.
He just coached Gilas to the Asian Games gold medal
Cone won't be diving into this job blindly.
The time he spent as chief deputy to Reyes in the FIBA World Cup was already more than enough to bring him up to speed with the intricacies of the international game.
Following that up with a miraculous run to the gold medal in the Asian Games not only cemented his coaching legacy, it's also the best reason for him to keep his post.
The first window of the Asia Cup qualifiers is just around the corner, and starting a team from scratch is like courting disaster. Cone already has a working group of players that he can recall for practice to pick up where they left off, so when the first window rolls around, there won't be any getting-to-know-you stage.
The Gilas schedule is light this year
Ginebra regularly goes deep into the playoffs of each PBA conference, meaning Cone is actively coaching for around nine months every year.
Any other year, this would have been an almost impossible job for him to take on.
But with no World Cup, Asian Games or Southeast Asian Games on the horizon, Gilas will only be playing four FIBA Asia Cup qualifying games this year -- two in February and two in November -- and at most four games in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July.
That's hardly a heavy load, with no long training camps in Europe or two-week long tournaments that usually disrupt the PBA's calendar.
Cone said as much, stating: "If you're gonna have PBA players or the Japan players on your team, then you can't have a fulltime job doing Gilas.
"It's just not enough work. It's only three windows. Most likely, you're only talking about maybe five to six games this year."
If he does get appointed, Cone already offered a glimpse of what his preferred Gilas team would look like.
For him, it's go hard or don't go at all.
"I've always firmly believed, from back in 1998 when I coached (Gilas at the Asian Games), that you gotta go out and get the 12 best players in the country to represent you if you are to have a chance against the Europeans or the Americas or even teams like China, Lebanon, Iran, Australia.
"You can't go with your lesser teams and expect to beat those guys, can you?"