GOOD friends off the court and fierce competitors on, TNT coach Chot Reyes and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel counterpart Tim Cone face off for the eighth time in the PBA finals since the 1990s.
Reyes holds a slide edge in this finals head-to-head, thanks to the Tropang Giga's 4-2 triumph in retaining the crown in the Season 49-opening Governors' Cup last November.
According to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon, the two brilliant mentors have alternated hoisting the trophy in their battles.
Reyes won the initial duel in the 1994 Commissioner's Cup with Purefoods, then the 2002 All Filipino Cup with Coke and the 2009 Philippine Cup with TNT before prevailing in their seventh showdown just three months ago.
Cone was triumphant in the second showdown in the 1996 All Filipino Conference then the 2003 Invitational both with Alaska and the 2012 Commissioner's Cup with BMEG (now Magnolia).
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The two masters know each other like the back of their hands so expect lots of moves and countermoves throughout the best-of-seven Last Dance that begins Friday.
This being said, both Cone and Reyes stressed that players' execution will be the difference-maker here.
"We've been at each other for quite a while. We've coached against each other, we've coached with each other. Obviously the familiarity is there," said Cone, who had Reyes as assistant during their Alaska days then took on the role of deputy when the latter was Gilas Pilipinas' chief strategist.
"He knows me inside and out and it's just going to come down to execution. You can know whatever you want to know but if the team executes well you can still battle through that. So that's what it's going to come down to for us is just our execution."
No argument from Reyes on that.
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"I agree with what Tim said but more than the familiarity and more than the two of us as coaches, it's really the players who are going to decide the series," he said.
"We could make our adjustments here and there but after a while, it's really going to come down to who's able to get it done on the floor. So whether we're familiar or not, I think the deciding factor is really what's going to happen on the court. " (OL)
