Two of the bests to ever do it.
For most of his illustrious career, Tim Cone was associated with the triangle offense, the famed system used by another legendary coach Phil Jackson in his championship years with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The triangle has also brought a lot of success for Cone in his time with the Alaska franchise and later on with the Purefoods franchise, both of which he led to the rare grand slam in the PBA.
While Cone has veered away from the famous style of play these days, the 65-year-old tactician is still very much connected with it. In fact, that very same connection led to probably one of Cone's coolest moments as a coach and as a fan of the game.
During the FIBA World Cup in the country earlier this year, Cone had the chance to dive back to the principles of the triangle with none other than former Chicago Bulls guard and now Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Cone recalled the rare encounter in an episode of the Let It Fly Podcast.
"I did get invited to a dinner in the Fort, (Erik Spoelstra) told me to come right after our practice so we ran over there, with Chot (Reyes), and lo and behold we walked in there and there’s Steve Kerr, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Few, Grant Hill. It’s like walking into royalty," he said.
"And then I was standing there in the middle of the room, the restaurant by myself. And all of a sudden somebody comes over and taps me on the shoulder. I turned around, he put out his hand and he goes like, ‘Hi, I’m Steve Kerr.’ I was like, ‘Of course, I know who you are.’"
The two then proceeded to connect and practically geeked over the. triangle offense.
"What happened is Chip Engelland told Steve that I have been a long-time coach here and that I ran the triangle and so Steve came over to me and literally stood in the middle of the restaurant for 25 minutes and just talked pure triangle. I was like, bucket list is done, I’m ready to kick it, let’s go," he said.
"‘Cause Steve of course ran the triangle with Michael Jordan and the Bulls to their three championships. He told me that his first thought was to bring the triangle to the Warriors when he first took over the Warriors."
Maybe that encounter might encourage coach Tim to again employ some triangle offense with the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel or even Gilas Pilipinas.