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There was no one more excited on December 9 than assistant coach Richard del Rosario when Barangay Ginebra San Miguel won their first PBA Philippine Cup title after 13 years.
She was visibly crying for the camera, the emotions were palpable even with a mask covering her nose and mouth.
After all, he started the idea for this bubble.
“I really dedicated myself totally to this championship since May,” del Rosario said. Sports page. “Back then, a lot of people criticized me: I was a know-it-all, a member of the IATF. It was very difficult because I just wanted to help.”
“When we won it, it was the culmination of all the emotions and hard work that everyone put in. I was grateful and grateful to the PBA, the commissioner, the board of governors for finding a way and having a successful PBA bubble.”
After two and a half months, 73 days to be exact, del Rosario went home to his family, who surprised him with their own boodle fight, a Sunday dinner tradition that the coach certainly missed while inside the house. bubble.
Barangay Geneva guard LA Tenorio also had a lot to look forward to: his three children and a newborn girl.
“Tears welled up in my eyes because they were all very excited,” Tenorio said. “They didn’t let me leave their side. You can’t match that feeling.”
Tenorio said he was especially comforted when his children understood his work better.
“As they watch the game, I felt happy because now they understand it.”
Jared Dillinger, on the other hand, admitted that he felt separation anxiety after being away from his teammates.
“I will be honest. It has been hard to process everything given the situation of the pandemic,” said the Geneva striker.
“It feels a little strange being home. I’m not going to lie. As soon as I got home, I was still calling some of my teammates to tell them, how are they at home? Are they okay? Do you want to play Call? of Duty? “
“I will never forget this one. It’s the closest I could get to my teammates, it really felt like a brotherhood inside this bubble,” Dillinger reflected.
As much as Geneva celebrated the end of its all-Filipino drought, del Rosario admitted it was not easy to win the title.
Even with stars Ray Parks Jr. and Jayson Castro injured, TNT Tropang Giga managed to put up a fight in Game 5 of the final.
“Everyone expected us to win,” said the assistant coach, sharing what they discussed coming into Game 5. “We have to moderate our expectations because we cannot go in there and hope to just win. We could forget the effort we put in to win.”
Jared Dillinger was chosen to start that game, just as he did in Game 4.
“I took it as a challenge. I have to step up and do my job, do my best and have fun,” he said.
Geneva sealed the series, 82-78.
While Geneva fans repeated Tenorio’s several three-point shots in Game 4, as well as the three that hit Scottie Thompson’s buzzer that sealed his ticket to the final, del Rosario said that shooting from beyond his arc It wasn’t their bread and butter.
“We never trust our three-point shots to win games,” he said.
“In fact, if we take a lot of 3-pointers, we feel like we are not playing our game. We are conforming too much and our aggressiveness wears off. So we always preach that we have to get the ball in first before we get out.
His game plan, the assistant coach explained, was not to prevent hot shots TNT Tropang Giga from scoring his 3s.
“What we wanted to control was the quality of their shots. We wanted those shots to be contested all the time as much as we could.”
Tenorio, who was struggling early in the bubble while recovering from an appendectomy, was hailed as the MVP of the Finals.
El “Tinidente” was notably blank during the first three quarters of Game 2, but made five free throws down the stretch to seal the victory. The veteran shooting guard also hit big shot after big shot in Game 4 to steal the victory from TNT.
Tenorio said the depressions were something he learned to ignore.
“Coach Tim always tells me that I can really dominate the game if I don’t score,” he said. “My mindset right now is to really involve my teammates right away.”
The veteran has learned to energize guard Stanley Pringle. Tenorio also learned how to boost Japeth Aguilar’s confidence, being the key passer in the climax after the climax of the high-flying dunk.
“People say I won that MVP not because of my scoring and my spectacular plays or whatever or the three-point shots at the end. It’s not that,” he said.
“I think what I like is when people say it is the leadership that I had throughout the series.”
