A day before Father’s Day over the weekend, Ginebra coach Tim Cone got the chance to reunite with some of his former Alaska players during their heydays—and with former best import Devin Davis—that he surely cherished.
“He (Davis) was here for like three days so we had to put something together. Gotta give Jojo (Lastimosa) credit. He was the one who put it all together for everybody and it was just really awesome seeing all the guys back from 1998. Kevin Ramas was there, Rodney (Santos) was there,” Cone said. “Got a chance to sit next to Poch (Junio) and talk to him for a long time and Sean (Chambers) came and some of the wives came, my wife went so it was just a really nice reunion.
“People don’t realize how much love we had for Devin when he was here and we would’ve continued, he would’ve been our Sean Chambers,” he added.
The bull-strong Davis, now 50, powered the now defunct Aces to the Commissioner’s Cup title in 1998 while winning the top reinforcement plum.
The 6-foot-7, dreadlocks-sporting big man could have been another Chambers for Alaska but a lucrative contract in Spain prevented that from happening.
“He got a big contract in Spain and ended up playing in Spain for 15 years. So, I kept calling him every year and asking, ‘you wanna come back, you wanna come back?’ While he was in Spain, he could not come back but we had a lot of love for him back in 1998,” Cone said.
“He was like a scary figure for everybody with his dreads and his gold teeth but for his teammates and for us, we knew what kind of person he was, and just a tremendous person and tremendous teammate and what an incredible hard worker. So, he carved out a whole career in Spain and so really good for him.”
While other legendary Aces like Johnny Abarrientos, Kenneth Duremdes, and Bong Hawkins were unable to join the get-together, it was surely a great time going down memory lane for Cone, especially with Davis.
“He was the most physical import I’ve ever coached. But he had such a great soul and such a good person,” he said. “But he didn’t look like he looked like a monster out on the court. But if you knew him off the court, super guy. That’s why the players loved him so much.”
