Abarrientos responds in best way possible after Cone tongue-lashing

MANILA, Philippines – As brilliant as RJ Abarrientos has been for Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, there are still times when he gets an earful from head coach Tim Cone.

Game 1 of the finals on Wednesday, June 3, proved no exception as Cone chewed out Abarrientos with three minutes remaining and the Gin Kings trailing 90-95 after a couple of defensive lapses by the sophomore guard against TNT counterpart Rey Nambatac. 

Nambatac produced 5 straight points with Abarrientos as his defender, first knocking down a three-pointer that broke an 88-88 deadlock then fishing a foul from beyond the arc and eventually sinking two of three free throws that put the Tropang 5G ahead at 93-90.

A Roger Pogoy bucket pushed the TNT lead to 95-90, prompting a timeout from an incensed Cone, who walked up to Abarrientos near half-court to give the Rookie of the Year a piece of his mind.

That tongue-lashing somehow brought the best out of Abarrientos as he hit two gutsy four-pointers inside the final two minutes that allowed Ginebra to surge ahead and paved the way for import Justin Brownlee to sink the game-winning jumper with six-tenths of a second left en route to a 102-100 victory. 

“I don’t think I motivated him. I think I got him pissed off,” Cone said of Abarrientos. “That was me getting hard on a player and the player responded. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. RJ has tremendous character. No matter what, he keeps his calm.”

“He’s really good at moving on and taking what you’re saying and making something from it. I thought he did a great job of figuring out down the stretch what they were doing and he responded. He’s just a clutch guy. Those two four-pointers were amazing shots.” 

Abarrientos finished with a team-high 24 points to go with 7 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals in another impressive performance for the Best Player of the Conference frontrunner, but he was still hard on himself after the game. 

“Coach Tim got mad at me. My defense against Nambatac in those two possessions, that can’t happen again. I need to be better on that. I need to embrace that,” said Abarrientos. 

If it is any consolation for Abarrientos, that scolding meant that Cone expects nothing but excellence from him, just like what the champion mentor has done with countless PBA superstars he has coached over the decades. 

Cone also took the same approach with Abarrientos’ uncle Johnny and Jojo Lastimosa at Alaska and James Yap at Purefoods.  

“I’m an equal opportunity screamer. I scream at everybody, whether it be Justin, RJ, Scottie, Johnny Abarrientos back in the day, Bong Hawkins, Jojo, James Yap,” said Cone. 

“Hopefully our relationship is strong enough that he’s not going to hold a grudge or anything like that.” – Rappler.com