Having Tenorio on Ginebra bench a 'great honor' says Tim Cone
MANILA, Philippines — The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel had every motivation to win against rivals San Miguel Beer on Friday in Game One of their semifinals series as veteran guard LA Tenorio was present at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
Tenorio recently revealed that he was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer but made his presence felt for the team as he joined them on the bench, and even coaching during timeouts.
Head tactician Tim Cone fell short of providing any details on Tenorio's health condition but said that Tenorio simply being there was such a huge factor for the Gin Kings.
"It's a great honor that he is here with us and doing things that he wants to do while he's doing things that he needs to do," Cone said after the game.
"I feel honored that he's spending his time with us and he's so valuable. He's a leader, he's been our leader for the time I've been here, and even when I was with Alaska, you know, 14, 15 years ago. He's been with us, he's been our leader back then. He's just a natural born leader," he added.
Tenorio hasn't played for the Gin Kings since the beginning of March after playing a record 744 games straight in the PBA.
In his statement about his condition released earlier this week, Tenorio mentioned that he had already gone through surgery.
Despite this, Cone knows that it still took a lot on Tenorio's body to continue to show up for his team. Before revealing his diagnosis to the public, Tenorio also watched his team in the quarterfinals against the NLEX Road Warriors last week.
"I just find it really selfless on his part to be here and I think the whole team feels that," he said.
Now that the cat is out of the bag on the severity of Tenorio's condition, Cone says that the team continues to draw strength from 8-time PBA champion.
"It can be kind of corny, we're doing this for LA. Of course, we're doing this for LA. It doesn't need to be said, I don't think it needs to be repeated," the coach said.
"You know, he honors us by his presence, hopefully, we can honor him by continuing to play hard and play in his image."
The Gin Kings will hope to ride the momentum of their win and Tenorio's presence when they play SMB for Game 2 on Sunday, March 26, still at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
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