Throwing the Resign Switch

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     What is it about the world today, that when one bungles a task calls for resignation or replacement are immediately called for?  I have yet to give my full support to interim Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jessie Robredo (probably much to the chagrin of my buddy Harvey Keh), but I would like people to step on the brakes a little on calls for his head.  People placed in leadership positions do have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders and they are expected to rise through tough times, but they are all human too.  If every leader who fouled up early in their careers were immediately replaced, we would have missed these greats:

Bethune "Siot" Tanquincen - The soft-spoken former UST Growling Tiger got a baptism of fire replacing PBA great Allan Caidic as Baranggay Ginebra's coach in the Fiesta Conference of the 2004 season.  Opening with an eliminations record of 4 wins and 10 losses, "THe Baranggay" fans grew restless and some grumbles even called for his firing.  After the debacle of the eliminations, Tanquincen's determination to impose his own system led to the emergence of Jay Jay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa, aka The Fast and The Furious.  That translated to an improbable championship over Red Bull in that same conference.  Then, Siot led the Kings to the Philippine Cup championship right after that, giving the Kings its first back to back championship in history.

Norman Black - The multi-titled PBA coach took on his toughest challenge when he accepted the call to coach Ateneo de Manila University in 2005.  Long suffering in the UAAP (save for a win in 2002), the Blue Eagles were desperate for a win and looked to Black to lead them.  Black's opening salvo, though, was no rosy picture.  Despite good eliminations records, Black's Eagles failed one year after another for three seasons.  Overzealous alumni called for his head, but he got to stay on and his patience with teaching the game to the players instead of just designing plays paid off.  Developing talents like Chris Tiu, Rabeh Al-Hussaini and Nonoy Baclao produced back to back championships for the Blue Eagles, its first since the glory days of the late 80s.  This year, the Eagles look strong again and could take home its first three-peat.

Tim Cone - On a dare by Alaska team owner Fred Uytengsu, Cone agreed to coach the Air Force (now the Aces) in 1989.  After just a season under his belt, Cone led the upstart team to the finals of the 1990 Reinforced Conference against the Purefoods Hotdogs.  They sped to a 2-0 lead in the best of 5 title series, historically an insurmountable lead.  Then, the unthinkable happened.  The Hotdogs rattled of three consecutive wins, knocking off Alaska while making history as the only team to come back from an 0-2 deficit in a five game series.  Coaching a debacle like that would have been curtains for most coaches, but Cone and his triangle offense got a second chance and promptly led Alaska to its first title in 1991 Reinforced Conference.  From then on, Cone went on to win 14 more titles, tying Baby Dalupan as PBA history's "winningest" coach.  He also did a little thing called a Grand Slam (winning all three PBA titles in the same season) and he is the longest-serving professional basketball coach in history, now going over 20 years.


        Maybe it's the technology, all these gadgets and their replaceable parts, that make us more impatient than ever.  When it comes to replacing leaders, though, we may want to take it slow.  All three leaders mentioned above had to undergo tough times as they opened their campaigns taking over teams in messy situations.  All three also succeeded tremendously, only after they were given the proper time to run things the way they wanted.  Perhaps we should ease up and give Robredo a chance to run things.  Sometimes, throwing the resign switch too early deprives us of Grand Slam coaches.


photos courtesy of alaskaaces.com.ph, unomagazine.com.ph, gmanews.tv