Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Wednesday bounced back big time from their opening-day loss to the Magnolia Hotshots by dominating rivals TNT Tropang 5G on their way to a 92-77 victory—their first of PBA Season 50. One of Ginebra’s heroes was Scottie Thompson, who atoned for a scoreless first game by scattering 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 9 assists in another all-around display that has been an ST9 special for so many seasons now.
After the game, Ginebra coach Tim Cone scoffed at Thompson’s doubters, who had a field day after the former MVP’s uninspired play against Magnolia. He also had a stern reminder to pundits who may have doubted Ginebra after that wire-to-wire defeat versus the Hotshots.
“I don’t know why anybody ever doubts Scottie. It’s so incredible,” Cone said in the postgame presser on Wednesday night. “I know we’re a high-intention team. I’ve always said that, I’ve said it to my wife millions of times: You never judge a team by one game, or a player by one game. If we had judged Justin Brownlee on his first game with us, he never would have lasted. We didn’t change him right away. He was terrible in his first game. It comes to body of work, and we trust the body of work…”
Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar Get Late Start for Ginebra
Cone also pointed out that Thompson, along with Ginebra’s other veteran Japeth Aguilar, “came back to practice very late” for different reasons, with Aguilar’s being surgery on his injured left hand. The league’s winningest coach conceded that his old reliables “hardly had any time to practice” and were “a little bit out of shape.”
That much was evident against Magnolia a week and change ago as Thompson could only muster 5 rebounds and 3 assists to go along with his goose egg and 3 turnovers. Aguilar, on the other hand, finished with just 5 points on 5 shots on top of only 5 boards.
Ten days later, the two were at the forefront of Ginebra’s big bounce back, with Aguilar, in particular, dropping a team-high 17 points with 10 boards to complement Thompson’s all-around brilliance.
“To doubt someone like Scottie or Japeth is beyond comprehension,” Cone would later say in the same presser as he defended his two superstars and his team from bashers.
Of course, teams and pundits can doubt Ginebra and its stars all they want. But if Thompson and Aguilar bring their “A” games, they’ll be proving those doubters wrong more often than not.
