NBA Summer League: the Philippines basketball coach with more rings than Jackson, Popovich and Belichick combined
- Tim Cone has won 24 titles with Barangay Ginebra and has been working as an assistant coach with the Miami Heat
- There has been an international feel to the league this summer with 86 overseas players taking part
Tim Cone is the Phil Jackson of coaching basketball in the Philippines. He’s the Gregg Popovich. He’s the Bill Belichick.
Technically, those comparisons sell Cone a bit short. Jackson, Popovich and Belichick – a trio that’s among the greatest coaches in recent decades across pro sports – have combined for 22 championships as head coaches in their leagues. Cone has 24.
Yet for the last couple of weeks, Cone was an assistant coach for the first time in his life. He was on the Miami Heat staff during NBA Summer League, looking for new ideas, new things to teach, different ways to think about the game.
“It’s just been eye-popping for me,” Cone said. “Honestly, the whole reason I’m here is to bring things back, introduce them to our league. Because you know, anything that’s good, it’s copied.
“So I’m going to bring things back, do some things over there that’s new, other coaches will pick it up and hopefully that’ll elevate all of us in our league and elevate the level of basketball.”
Cone’s presence was just part of this year’s international feel to Summer League, which almost always has some sort of element that serves as a reminder of the game being a global one. China and Croatia sent their national teams to Summer League in past years, and this summer, there were no fewer than 86 international players on the rosters in Las Vegas – meaning roughly one in every five players in the league were born outside the US.
And the world is watching: for example, when Fanbo Zeng of China got his first basket of Summer League for the Indiana Pacers, it became national news in his country.
“He’s got a great feel for the game,” Ronald Nored, the Pacers assistant coach, said.
