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.
Contents
Awards
Finals stint
The acquisition of three-time MVP Bogs Adornado and Fil-Am rookie Ricardo Brown during the off-season and behind last year's best import awardee Norman Black, formerly of San Miguel Beer, the Great Taste Coffee Makers finally made it to the championship round for the first time in their franchise history during the second conference of the season, going up against the Crispa Redmanizers, led by a prolific import named Billy Ray Bates. The Coffee Makers were ahead, two games to one, in their best-of-five title series and a win away from their first ever PBA crown, the Redmanizers however battled back to win the last two games and take home their second championship of the season.
Great Taste and Crispa played again in the finals in the Open Conference, the Redmanizers had Larry Demic as Billy Ray Bates' partner while Norman Black teamed up with Dawan Scott. Crispa had an easier time winning over the Coffee Makers, scoring a 3-0 sweep to captured their second PBA Grandslam.
Occurrences
During the Open Conference, the Coffee Makers were on top of the standings when in their game against Galerie Dominique in the second round of eliminations, coach Jimmy Mariano was quote as saying "We didn't intend to win", which was carried out by the media, by his admission to deliberately lose the game, Mariano was sacked from his job. Former Crispa coach Baby Dalupan, who was hired as team consultant during the second conference, has taken over to replace Mariano on the Great Taste bench.
Roster
Team Manager: Ignacio Gotao