No wonder Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone has a way with words.

Cone once wanted to become a novelist before pursuing basketball coaching in the PBA, a career that has spanned more than 3 decades and saw him win a record 23 championships.

Graduating with a double degree in economics and American literature in the United States, Cone tried his hand in writing upon his return to the Philippines, where he spent his teenage years.

Fact is, Cone started a novel entitled He’s Alone Now decades back.

“I spent a year in the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon Province and lived there for a year and basically just got up every morning and wrote, trying to write a novel,” Cone told The Chasedown show.

The 63-year-old, however, has to yet finish his novel as he pursued other endeavors in Manila.

It was in Manila where Cone met his wife Cristina and where he began his illustrious PBA coaching career with Alaska in 1989.

He is the only head coach in PBA history to win two Grand Slams, doing so with Alaska in 1996 and with San Mig Super Coffee in 2014.

Cone highlighted his already legendary coaching career by helping Ginebra regain its lost glory as he led the franchise to 5 titles over the last 5 seasons.

“I did not want to live in the province anymore and I wanted to come back to Manila so I could be closer to [my wife] as well,” Cone said.

“A combination of things. I always blame my wife for destroying my writing career,” he quipped.

Looking back, Cone said his previous works need a lot of revision.

“[S]ome of the stuff I wrote 30 years ago, I look at it now as not very good. I was a young guy trying my best, but not as knowledgeable as I am now, not as experienced as I am now in terms of seeing life.” – Rappler.com