Racela, TNT keeping head high

MANILA, Philippines — It’s not all bad for TNT and Nash Racela.

After TNT bowed to San Miguel Beer in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Sunday, the first-year head coach said there’s no shortage of silver linings.

“I saw a lot, a lot!” he said. “Siguro just getting to the Finals is a positive thing. At least based from this conference, we were better than 10 other teams. That’s a positive thing. It just so happened that one team was better than us.”

Racela went on to note that many have written off TNT for being the significantly inexperienced team compared to the Finals veterans-laden San Miguel.  But all that changed after the series.

“A lot of people talked about us being the inexperienced team, having eight or nine players who don't have Finals experience,” Racela said. "It won't happen the next time because that's what we gained in this series.”

Racela commandeered the KaTropa side into the semifinals only in his first conference. They fell in seven games, also against San Miguel. This time, they were only able to stand firm in six, but they were already playing at the final stage.

"We knew what kind of team we were playing. They came out to play,” Racela added. “[They] played an almost-perfect game today. When we needed it the most, that's when they suddenly played really, really well.”

"It's hard to beat a team like San Miguel, malakas talaga yan. But it was us who actually needed to play perfectly. Well, that's the character of their team, that's why they are champions. Kung kailan mo kailangan, that's when they suddenly play well,” he continued.

A deputy to many decorated coaches years prior, Racela also believes the mettle that the Beermen now touts wasn’t something that they randomly had.

"When you look at San Miguel and where they are right now, they never got to this stage overnight,” he noted. "Maraming drama 'yan befor—'Petronovela,' gan’yan, it took them years before they won their championships.”
 

Deal with failure before you deal with success.

— Nash Racela (@scwtN) July 3, 2017

“We are going through the same process. We just have to remind ourselves to be patient.”

Who knows, maybe TNT can go deeper. As far as trends go, if Racela and his crew can improve their per-conference outing, they can finally snare the top prize. After all, there’s one conference more left this season.

TNT and the other teams go back to square one in the Governors’ Cup starting July 19.