Ginebra coach Tim Cone admitted having mixed feelings over LA Tenorio's failure to make it to the Gilas Pilipinas final 12.

Together with Calvin Abueva, Tenorio was omitted from the list of the national team members who will compete in the coming FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Cone said he felt sad for Tenorio, but at the same time happy for the Gin Kings.

“On a selfish standpoint, I’m happy that he got let go from the national team and we can get him moving forward. But for him, obviously it’s a big blow,” said the multi-titled coach in Karlo Sacamos’ report on Spin.ph.

“You work hard, you travel, get away from your family, do all this work, and at the very end, you don’t get to join the party.”

Cone remembered the time when he coached the national team in 1998. He was forced to cut Jeffrey Cariaso, a player very close to him, from the national team.

(Coach Tab: ‘Calvin and LA are valued members of Gilas’)

“It devastated Jeffrey that I had to do that,” he said. “It was just a really hard thing to do. But somebody’s going to be the one not there.”

Cone said that being cut from the team that close to the tournament is probably the biggest sacrifice a player can make.

“It’s like going to the battle and being left in the battlefield dead, everybody goes away and you’re still dead on the battlefield,” he explained. “If they look at it that way, I think that they’ll be fine with that.”

Cone said that despite Tenorio’s tough luck with Gilas, the former Blue Eagle is already eager to join the Gin Kings’ practices.

Cone, however, wants Tenorio to take a well deserved rest, physically and mentally.

“When we took that long break after the conference, he was right back at it with Gilas, so he never really got a break. We’re giving him a break. I think he deserves it and in the long term, it’ll help us more.”

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