Coz you gotta have faith

Love you bro. Aiiiiiight?

During turbulent times, episodes of trials and great challenges, it is always convenient to take the easy way out. No one will call you out for it, no one will crucify you for your actions—you simply went with what was the most logical thing to do.

But sometimes, you stick to what you know inside despite all odds and circumstance. Sometimes, you abandon reason and thought and trust your gut. Sometimes, if not most of it, we live life by the minute—all by faith.

When the B-Meg Llamados found themselves unable to quickly dispatch the defending champion Talk ‘n’ Text Tropang Texters, head coach Tim Cone could’ve made the right adjustments on the floor. By “right” we mean, the ones that we all believe would work for him outright. Like putting in Yancy de Ocampo over ineffective Joe DeVance. Or sending Josh Urbiztondo, Mark Barroca or both to the bench in favor of Jonas Villanueva. Simple solutions that could or would’ve worked either way—but don’t tell that to Coach Tim.

Of course, we all know now how it all ended for Coach Tim and his Llamados. They won the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title and exorcised the ghosts of Kerby Raymundo and Roger Yap in the process. They are now a new team, under Coach Tim and led by Finals MVP James Yap. They may still run isolation plays here and there, but emphasis has been put on moving the basketball and playing solid team defense.

Had the foul on Denzel Bowles in the last 1.2 seconds of the game not been called, the Llamados would've been left scratching their heads wondering how they lost despite clearly having the best import and one of the league's best stars. Questions about Coach Tim's extended rotation would certainly arise-- but then we'd just end up talking about the same thing: faith.

Coach Tim trusted Joe DeVance to make the right plays at the right time even if it came at the expense of sitting down his best defensive player in Marc Pingris. Barroca played more minutes than he should've, because we all know that he's the team's point guard of the future-- and what better way to get him title ready than to actually have him play in the Finals? Ditto with De Ocampo, who was written off just a conference or two ago for being Marlou Aquino 2.0. Coach Tim asked and believed in YDO, and the Caviteno rewarded his coach's trust by being the team's enforcer (Pingris is nowhere near an enforcer, JDV too).

Yap, PJ Simon and even Denzel Bowles had off nights in the series that cost the Llamados one game leads-- but you never saw or heard Coach Tim throw anyone under the bus. He believed in them, from the first to the last guy much like he did back in the day with Alaska when he'd draw up plays for guys like Johnny Abarrientos and Jojo Lastimosa to Kevin Ramas and even Cris Bolado (not always but he did give them certain roles which they excelled in).

Sometimes you draw plays for your team and trust the science to do its magic. Others, you leave it to the players and the bounce of the basketball.

That's why we all love this game.