Off the PBA court: A lot of expectations for Cariaso at Ginebra

JEFFREY CARIASO will be the next Barangay Ginebra coach, and boy, does he have expectations to fulfil.
Coming off a lethargic stint in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, the Gin Kings will have basically nowhere to go but up when the season-ending Governors’ Cup fires off in a couple of weeks.
And Cariaso is seen by management as the man who would resurrect the Kings, the man who will take them back to heights they are familiar with and the man who can mend any animosity within the squad.
The next big question is: Can Cariaso do them all?
Less than a decade retired and less than two seasons as chief assistant to Tim Cone at San Mig Coffee, Cariaso will be taking on a job most coaches in the PBA want to have — and that is to coach a team that does nothing wrong in the eyes of the fans.
There were countless times in his playing career — while with Alaska, Mobiline and Tanduay — when Cariaso was the subject of all the jeers of Ginebra’s throng. The Rookie of the Year in 1995 was that good as a player.
There was even that incident in the 1990s when Cariaso was undercut by Rudy Distrito in a Ginebra-Alaska game that he suffered a bad fall and had to be carried out of the court and taken straight to a hospital.
Ginebra fans didn’t curse “The Destroyer” for what he did, and they didn’t show Cariaso sympathy either.
Now Cariaso is on the other side of the fence, playing for undoubtedly the most popular franchise ever in the PBA. He will be under a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver, for sure, for management and fans don’t take losing as an alternative.
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San Miguel Corporation conglomerate Ramon S. Ang, the business tycoon, has certainly shown that he is not a patient man as far as his basketball teams in the PBA are concerned.
He has ordered the reshuffling of coaches of his three registered teams in an effort to find the right combination and for them to battling for no less than the title each time — if that is at all possible.
In the last three conferences, Ginebra has tried on two coaches in Ato Agustin and Juno Sauler, though Sauler was never registered as the head coach, but just an active assistant like American Todd Purves is to Biboy Ravanes at San Miguel Beer.
With Cariaso coming in, he will be the third coach in four tournaments for the Gin Kings, who will have no more than three weeks to get the right chemistry under their new mentor and to familiarize themselves with the new system that Cariaso will put in place.
That certainly is a very short amount of time, and with an import coming in for the season-ending conference, Cariaso will have another new face to teach.
There is also some rumors circulating that management is also not satisfied with the way Purves handled the team in the last conference, where the Beermen, as the No. 2 seeds, were bundled out by No. 7 Air21 in two straight games.
San Miguel still remains as the most loaded team on paper, and the way the Beermen played at the start, most conceded them a Finals appearance no less.
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I remember one story I read long ago about Phil Jackson and his decision to trade Shaquille O’Neal and leave Kobe Bryant as the main man for the Los Angeles Lakers.
I remember almost every basketball fan I talked to criticizing Jackson for the move, because Shaquille is well-loved at Los Angeles and is a proven winner in the NBA.
I really can’t reprint the exact words of Jackson in that article, but I vividly remember the essence of the story, the rationale behind his decision to prod Lakers owner Jerry Buss to give O’Neal away and start a new era with Bryant as the sole leader.
Jackson said something about not changing coaches and instead, changing players for prolonged success of a franchise. There was also one article that quoted Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs as having the same outlook.
No one can contest the wisdom of both coaches, for they have won titles using different players.
Coaches put systems in place for players to follow, those systems are the ones players go to during critical times when decisions have to be made on the floor without the benefit of the coaches whispering something in their ears.
That’s why Cone is very successful in the PBA. Remember that he broke up Alaska’s Grand Slam squad by trading away Johnny Abarrientos and Jojo Lastimosa — future Hall of Famers — and Rene Hawkins to be able to give the squad that prolonged excellence.
With new coaches, there will be birth pains. They will have to start again from the bottom in a field where all things are equal. There’s no exception to that rule, except of course for the Dream Team of the United States in the 1992 Olympics.