Purefoods coach Gregorio is new giant killer

Purefoods’ three-time champion coach Ryan Gregorio, who steered the Giants to a rare four-game sweep of the Alaska Aces in the KFC-Philippine Basketball Association best-of-seven finals series, cannot forget the lonely stretches he had in his coaching career. It was these times when he almost felt he would lose the job and might not be given another shot of coaching in the PBA. For Gregorio, it was like he was on the hot seat. No wonder, this third championship is truly the sweetest for the youthful mentor.

"This is the sweetest title for me because it came when I felt that my coaching career seemed like it would come to an end," said Gregorio. "But I never stopped believing and waited for the right pieces to form my ideal winning squad." It turned out two of the right pieces that Gregorio said are former Giants players as Purefoods got back the services of Marc Pingris and Paul Artadi, who are both members of the Giants’ champion squad four seasons ago. Add defensive specialist Raffi Reavis and rookie Rico Maierhofer to a line-up that already have role players KG Canaleta, Roger Yap, PJ Simon and Don Allado and you have a team ready to win another championship. In just one season together, Purefoods was turned from giants to league titans, to once again rule the All-Filipino Conference. Gregorio will surely remember this edition of the Philippine Cup after he defeated two powerhouse squads in separate series. The Giants, who lost two of the first three games, were able to win three straight games over the mighty San Miguel Beermen in their best-of-seven semifinals series. Then, Gregorio capped his team’s magical run with a sweep of the Aces in the All-Filipino Conference finals. In winning yet another AFC crown, Gregorio became the only Purefoods mentor to win the Philippine Cup twice. Ely Capacio, Chot Reyes and Eric Altamirano each won one for the Giants.. Gregorio reasserts dominance over Cone For the third time in as many best-of-seven encounters meetings with Tim Cone, Gregorio has again defeated his more experienced and highly-touted rival. In the 2002 Governors Cup, Gregorio’s Purefoods Hotdogs were down 0-2 in their best-of-seven finals series with the Aces but bounced back to win four of the next five games. In the 2005-06 best-of-seven semifinals series in the Philippine Cup, Gregorio’s troops were facing elimination, but went on to win three straight to foil Alaska once more. On their third meeting, it was Gregorio who asserted his dominance over Cone’s wards, putting up a clinical victory and made the second winningest mentor in league history guessing for his every move. Despite winning over his highly-fancied counterpart, Gregorio refused to make any comparisons. "I’ve never thought of this Finals as a battle between me and coach Tim," said Gregorio. "If it were, it would have been a no contest on his favor. I just happened to have the better team in those three best-of-seven series meetings." "For me, Cone is still the best active coach in the league right now. He has 12 rings, I only have three so no comparison with that," he added. Cone heaped praises on his counterpart, who made him look so bad. He said he regret the fact that "I cannot figure out a way against Gregorio’s Giants." "I’ve tried everything we could do and Purefoods just beat us with their energy, their size and their speed," said Cone, who also commented that Gregorio is one of the greatest young coaches today. "Purefoods truly deserves this victory." Reliving the tradition The All-Filipino has been Purefoods’ familiar turf towards greatness. The Giants now have collected five AFC crowns to tie the legendary Crispa Redmanizers for most number of AFC diadems. Crispa, of course, is arguably the best team ever in the PBA, winning 13 titles, including two grandslams in just 10 seasons in the country’s premier professional league. But for Purefoods, it’s not just accomplishing a record. It’s more of reliving the rich tradition of its franchise. In its first seven years in the PBA, Purefoods, which was then anchored by the man known as “The Captain" Alvin Patrimonio and “Defense Minister" Jerry Codinera, has almost automatically made it to the championship round. In its first seven years in the PBA, Purefoods won two titles. Capacio was the first coach to guide Purefoods to an AFC crown in 1991. Two years later, a young Reyes, who has been helping out Cone in Alaska, completed a Cinderella Finish and guided the squad, then known as Coney Island, to yet another crown in the same conference. The streak was broken in 1995, but Purefoods entered the AFC finals for the next two years – losing the 1996 edition to Alaska then bounced back in 1997 under the tutelage of Altamirano, another first year coach to win a championship for the then Ayala franchise. Purefoods made it again in 2000 AFC and was beaten by Alaska, but never entered the championship round again until the influx of new talents headed by James Yap. With James Yap and Kerby Raymundo in tow, the Giants entered and won the finals of the 2005-06 season under Gregorio. And just recently, Gregorio achieved his second All-Filipino crown. – GMANews.TV