Cone says Caguioa most affected by Heltebrand’s departure

MANILA, Philippines — Life without Jayjay Helterbrand is slowly settling in for Time Cone and Barangay Ginebra.

Most of the brunt of Helterbrand’s exit, though, is not one carried by Cone. It will be on the shoulders of the cager’s longtime on-court partner, Mark Caguioa.

Chatting with members of the press during the Gin Kings’ thanksgiving party at the FilOil Flying V Centre on Friday, the Grand Slam mentor said “the biggest effect [of Helterbrand’s departure] is on Mark.”

“When Mark and Jayjay come in together in practice, they go this certain corner of the gym and sit there by themselves, the two of them, all the time,” Cone bared. “I always try to say ‘Jay, come over here,’ ‘Mark, go over there,’ and they just continue to go together.”

Caguioa and Helterbrand — whose tandem made fable rounds in the league as the “Fast and the Furious” — won six titles for the most storied franchise in the PBA. They had their sixth just recently in the season-ending Governors’ Cup both already in the twilight of their career.

Helterbrand, also a Filipino-American like his backcourt partner, called it quits days after winning their recent title, capping an illustrious 17-year career. Caguioa, for his part, has logged 16 seasons under his belt and has not toyed with the idea of retiring.

“Now Mark walks in, he’s there, in the same place, pero he looks so lonely,” Cone continued. “Nobody’s there with him anymore,” Cone noted.

The 38-year-old Caguioa, who has played for no other team, now becomes the oldest cager in a Ginebra squad that’s on the verge of fully turning a new page in its roster page. The next most senior guards on the team are LA Tenorio and Sol Mercado, both 33 years old and who came from other PBA teams.

“Mark’s just used to having that security blanket of Jayjay being there with him all the time —someone to talk to,” he said of the often-mum Caguioa.

But that void in Caguioa’s heart left by Helterbrand may just be filled.