 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(June 2019) |
The PBA Open Conference was a tournament held during a Philippine Basketball Association season from 1977-1983 and 1985-1989.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(June 2019) |
The PBA Open Conference was a tournament held during a Philippine Basketball Association season from 1977-1983 and 1985-1989.
While PBA annuals states in the league's first two seasons in 1975-1976 referred to the second conference as "Open Conference", it has since been reclassified. The PBA Open Conference started in the second offing of the 1977 season through 1979. In 1980-1981, the Open Conference became the PBA's first tournament of the season and in 1985, 1987-1989. Three times in 1982-1983 and 1986, the Open Conference was the season-ending tournament. The only time it was not held was in 1984 where the league had two All-Filipino Conferences.
The PBA Open Conferences from 1978-1987 had four semifinalist in a double-round robin, back-to-zero standings to determined the two finalist. The previous year had the first-ever, six-team semifinal cast where Crispa and U/tex played in the finals which the Redmanizers took in the deciding fifth game to win their six straight PBA title. The last two Open Conferences from 1988-1989 had five teams entering the semifinal round. The First Conferences from 1990-1992 may still be considered "Open" as well as the Third Conference being called "Reinforced" but like in the first two years of the league in the 1970s, the word "Open" was rarely written in newspaper articles.
The U/tex Wranglers in 1978, Royal Tru-Orangemen (former team name of San Miguel Beermen) in 1979 and Ginebra San Miguel in 1986 have all won their first PBA championship in the Open tournament. [1]
In 1978, U/tex won their first five semifinal assignments to clinch the first finals seat and lost their last game to Crispa, denying the Toyota Tamaraws of a chance to tie Crispa and forge a playoff for the second finals berth. It was a similar case the following year when Royal Tru-Orange won their first five games in the semifinals and it was Toyota's turn to beat the Orangemen in their last outing and nailed the second finals seat and avoid a possible playoff with Crispa.
Two of the best final four semifinals took place when the Open Conference was the last conference of the season in 1982-1983. Only one point separates a possible four-way deadlock when Gilbey's Gin beat San Miguel to booked their first finals appearance in 1982. The following year, it happened as all four teams ended up with three wins and three losses each, thus resulting to the first-ever, double-playoff match. Incidentally, three of the four semifinalist in the Open Conferences from 1982 and 1983 were Great Taste (N-Rich in 1982), Gilbey's Gin and San Miguel Beer. The two traditional powerhouses that won the Open title, Toyota Super Corollas in 1982 with Crispa having their worst finish in that conference, and in 1983, Crispa won the Grandslam while Toyota have their worst finish too in their final conference.
Two imports were allowed from 1977 to 1983 and again in 1986. While only one import per team in 1985, 1987-1989. In the 1982 Open Conference, six of the eight American reinforcements playing in the semifinals were returning imports. The Toyota-Gilbey's finale were the only time that four returning imports (Andrew Fields, Donnie Ray Koonce, Lew Massey and Larry McNeill) were playing in the PBA championship. The 1983 Open Conference semifinals had five returnees (Billy Ray Bates, Norman Black, Lew Massey, Donnie Ray Koonce and Rich Adams) among the eight imports.
1980: The last 16 seconds of Game five of the U-Tex vs Toyota championship series.
1981: The last Toyota vs Crispa finale
1985: The first PBA finals in the league's new home, the ULTRA in Pasig. The Great Taste Coffee Makers' only best-of-seven playoffs victory in the Ricardo Brown era.
1986: Ginebra San Miguel's first PBA championship after 7 seasons. Sonny Jaworski becoming the first playing-coach to steered his team to a PBA crown.
1988: The Purefoods Hotdogs' near-cinderella finish by playing in the finals against San Miguel Beermen in their maiden conference and only the second time a best-of-seven title series went into a deciding seventh game.
The San Miguel Beermen are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). It is one of three PBA clubs owned by the San Miguel Corporation group of companies along with the Magnolia Hotshots and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel. It is the most successful franchise in the history of the PBA and the only remaining original franchise in the league. The Beermen currently lead the league with the most titles (27) and the most all-time victories. In addition, it has won the Grand Slam in 1989 and the Perpetual Jun Bernardino Trophy after winning three straight PBA Philippine Cups from 2015 to 2017. It is also the only team to have won at least one PBA title in each of the five numerical decades of the league's existence and was the first professional basketball team in the world ever to come back from a 0–3 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series which they did during the 2015–16 Philippine Cup Finals.
The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). It is the most popular PBA team and has twelve PBA titles. The team is owned by Ginebra San Miguel, Inc., a subsidiary of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC). The team is one of three PBA ball clubs currently owned by the SMC group of companies, along with the Magnolia Hotshots and the San Miguel Beermen.
A team's Grand Slam in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is winning all three conference championships (tournaments) in a single season. As of 2018, this has been accomplished five times by four teams and four coaches since the league's inception in 1975.
The 1982 PBA season was the eighth season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1983 PBA season was the 9th season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The U/Tex Wranglers were a professional basketball team and one of the pioneers of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in its maiden season in 1975.
The 1983 San Miguel Beermen season was the 9th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1983 Gilbey's Gin Gimlets season was the 5th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Known as Gilbey's Gin Tonics in the Open Conference.
The 1983 Toyota Silver Coronas season was the ninth and final season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Return to Toyota Super Corollas in the Open Conference. The team would disband on February 1984 and its PBA franchise was sold to the Lucio Tan group of companies.
The 1983 Crispa Redmanizers season was the ninth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1985 Ginebra San Miguel season was the 7th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1983 Great Taste Discoverers season was the 9th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Return to Great Taste Coffee Makers beginning the Reinforced Filipino Conference.
The 1986 Ginebra San Miguel season was the 8th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1982 Toyota Super Corollas season was the eighth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1981 Crispa Redmanizers season was the seventh season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1982 San Miguel Beermen season was the eight season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
The 1982 Gilbey's Gin season was the 4th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1981 U/Tex Wranglers season was the seventh season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
The 1983 Tanduay Rhum Makers season was the 9th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Known as Yco-Tanduay in the All-Filipino Conference.
The 1982 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Open Conference was the third conference of the 1982 PBA season. It started on August 22 and ended on December 14, 1982. The tournament is an Import-laden format, which requires two imports per each team.
