Coach Tim chats with fans

Alaska Aces fans got the chance to chat with their favorite Alaska players last year. This time they get a chance to chat with the Alaska bench tactician himself, coach Tim Cone, during the “eTalk with Coach Tim” to be held 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday, February 5.

Do you want to know how coach Tim is preparing the team for the semifinals? How he motivates the players? Do you want to know his most memorable moments in the PBA en route to winning 12 PBA titles, the most by any active coach and second only to “The Maestro” Baby Dalupan in the all-time list.

Well, ask him yourself by joining the live chat on Friday. Just log on to Yahoo Messenger. You may download this at http://messenger.yahoo.com/ or you may log on to http://webmessenger.yahoo.com. Click Add Contact menu to add and type coachtim.cone@yahoo.com to start chatting.

“eTalk with Coach Tim” is the eagerly awaited follow up to the one-hour live chat, complete with WebCams, during the Alaska Aces Cyber Fans Day last year when the entire Alaska Aces team descended at the Alaska Milk corporate headquarters at the Corinthian Plaza in Makati. Each player was provided with a laptop with a Webcam which enabled him to chat with fans not only from the Philippines but from all over the world.

Many of the chatters were from Metro Manila. But some chatters came from as far as Dubai in the Middle East.

Larry Fonacier chatted with a fan from Singapore. Joe Devance interacted with a fan from Australia who wanted the Aces to come visit Down Under.

All the players came to chat with the fans. Among the first to arrive were LA Tenorio and Tony Dela Cruz.

The other players were all present. They included Willie Miller, Rey Hugnatan, Sonny Thoss, Ariel Capus, Fonacier, Kelvin Dela Pena, Mark Borboran, Devance, Ervin Sotto, Brandon Cablay, Mike Burtscher and Jeff Cariaso who all had a grand time interacting with their fans.

Team captain Jeff Cariaso said he was excited to do the chat which was a different way of interacting with Alaska fans.

“Medyo up-to-date na ngayon. I am really happy to have done it. They (fans) asked about the team. And they wanted to know how we will do this season. A lot of the chat messages come from Manila. So these are the people who are basketball fans,” said Cariaso.

“Some of them (fans) could not believe that we (Alaska players) were really the ones doing the chat. But with the Webcams they really got to see us. So walang daya. Talagang the fans saw that it was really us chatting with them.”

The Alaska mentor said he values the effort of the Alaska organization to reach out to the fans through the Internet and other media.

“This is something that we like to encourage. This is something that is unique to us and that we are very proud of. And we hope we can continue with this. This is the first time we have ever done something like this. I cannot even imagine doing something like this 10 years ago. To be able to all stay in one room and look everybody in the face and be able to do this,” said coach Tim.

The Alaska mentor said the Aces probably have the most computer savvy fans in the PBA in large part because of the Alaska Aces Website.

“Most of you do not know this but the Alaska Website is by far the most popular Website in the PBA. It blows everybody away. The people behind the Website work hard and report everything,” said coach Tim.