The Final Score: Chot Reyes, Tim Cone PBA rivalry goes way, way back

Four games into the PBA semi-final series between Talk ‘N Text and Alaska, Chot Reyes and Tim Cone are in a dead-heat, 2-2. Just like old times. They’re much older now, but they still compete like players in their twenties. Over 20 years since their first basketball showdown, partnerships and friendships notwithstanding, this rivalry is still going strong. “We grew up actually hating each other on the court because we used to play against each other on the Dasmariñas Village court and we were always on opposite sides," Cone recalls.

Each time Cone’s team faced “The Reyes Brothers" on the floor, in the aftermath of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, it was always war. Aside from Chot, “The Reyes Brothers" also featured Jun and Billy. Jun, one of the best point guards in the UAAP at that time, led Ateneo to back-to-back championships in 1987-1988, eventually helped Alaska win the ’96 Grand Slam as Johnny Abarrientos’s back-up, played 10 seasons in the PBA and, like Chot, became an Alaska Assistant Coach. Billy was a point-guard slash enforcer who would suit up for UST in the UAAP, the Cagayan de Oro Nuggets in the MBA and Pop Cola in the PBA. “It was always the Reyes brothers against everybody else," Cone shares with a wry smile. “I even had a slugfest with Billy Reyes, Chot’s little brother." Cone hated “The Reyes Brothers", most notably Chot. Cone hated Chot so much -- the way he wore basketball Über-confidence like a badge, the way he smooth-talked like Pat Riley in an Ateneo shirt -- Alaska’s Head Coach figured better to work alongside Chot than against him. “That’s when he decided to get me as an Assistant (Coach)," Reyes says. “Watching the Reyes brothers play, we’d press and trap the whole game and we’d have five guards and we wouldn’t lose a game. That was really instrumental in Tim hiring me as an Assistant Coach." “It was that competitive fire that Chot always displayed, that the Reyes brothers always displayed that attracted me when I had an opportunity to hire an Assistant Coach so he was the guy I hired," Cone admits. “Then we went after Jun Reyes because of that too. So we’ve always had that competitive fire between us." Two decades later, through their years together with Alaska, subsequent years as opposing coaches, numerous team-ups like a 2005 trip to Las Vegas with the National Team where Cone acted as assistant coach, roommate and nurse to an ailing Reyes, business partnerships and a friendship forged (even between their wives), Cone and Reyes aren’t done competing. “We genuinely want the best for each other," Reyes shares. “But when we’re out on the court, we’re enemies. We’re out to kill each other." “If you watch Chot and those Reyes kids play back in the day, they play exactly the way Talk N Text plays," Cone says. “But, the clothes, I certainly don’t battle him on that. It’s a losing proposition from the start." -- GMANews.TV