MANILA – San Miguel Beermen’s Leo Austria and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Tim Cone are locked in a head-to-head battle for the 2019 Virgilio ‘Baby’ Dalupan Coach of the Year award bestowed by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Press Corps in its Annual Awards Night.
Cone and Austria accounted for the three championships at stake in Season 44 last year to contend for the highest honor, which is handed out by the men and women regularly covering the PBA beat.
Austria steered the Beermen to a record-breaking fifth straight PBA Philippine Cup championship and added the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown later to be in line of achieving a complete season sweep. Cone and the Kings, however, foiled the Beermen’s grand slam bid by ruling the Governors’ Cup, which is the PBA’s season-ending tournament. Ginebra has won it three times in the last four years.
Cone also accepted the role of being Gilas Pilipinas’ brain, composing a roster built on the core of his wards during the 30th Southeast Asian Games hosted by the country. The Philippines won gold after sweeping dominantly its opponents.
Both Cone and Austria were named Coach of the Year three times. The former won the award back in 1994, 1996 and 2014, while the latter clinched it consecutively from 2015-2017.
The awarding event was supposed to be held last week. However, the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak forced the organizers to push it to a later date./PN
