The 1986 Manila Beer Brewmasters season was the 3rd and final season of the Asia Brewery franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Contents
Occurrences
The Brewmasters were handled by multi-titled amateur coach Joe Lipa at the start of the season, taking over from Olympian Edgardo Ocampo. After failing to lead Manila Beer past eliminations in the first conference, Lipa was replaced by another former Olympian Tito Eduque as Manila Beer head coach beginning the All-Filipino Conference. Coach Eduque bring along former PBA coaches Jun Celis and Nemie Villegas as his assistants.
Award
Michael Young won the PBA Best Import honors in the 1986 Open Conference, besting two-time best import awardee Billy Ray Bates.
Summary
From a runner-up finish in the third conference last year, the Brewmasters brought in Carlton Cooper and George Turner as their imports in the first conference of the season. Manila Beer lost to Great Taste, 86-90, in the opening night on April 6. The Brewmasters were winless in the first round of eliminations. Turner was replaced by their comebacking import William "Butch" Hays. Manila Beer broke into win column on April 24 with a 136-109 rout off Great Taste and the Brewmasters followed this up with another convincing victory against league-leading Alaska Milk, 141-120 on April 29, their two-game win streak was snapped by Ginebra San Miguel and they lost to Shell and Tanduay in succession to bow out with a 2-win, 8-loss slate.
Manila Beer's misery continues in the All-Filipino Conference when they dropped their first three matches, only to win the next three for an even 3-3 won-loss card. The Brewmasters handed Tanduay its first defeat on July 27 in a 121-113 victory as Atoy Co scored 36 points. Manila Beer lost all their three quarterfinal games and were eliminated for the second time in the season.
Michael Young, a first round pick by the Boston Celtics in the 1984 NBA Draft, and Santa Clara star Harold Keeling were the Brewmasters' imports for the Third Conference. On September 25, Young debut with 62 points as Manila Beer defeated Tanduay, 127-123, with the Rhum Makers absorbing their second loss and Young's fellow Houston Cougar Benny Anders of Tanduay being given his walking papers. Manila Beer finish the first round of eliminations tied with Shell at four wins and two losses and a game behind leader Ginebra San Miguel. The Brewmasters won five straight games into the second round to clinch outright semifinals berth. In the semifinal round, Manila Beer won their last three outings by close margins, defeating Great Taste, 115-114, Tanduay, 111-108, on Michael Young's buzzer-beating triple from an inbound play with one second left, and repeated over Great Taste, 122-121 on November 27, to make it to the championship against crowd-favorite Ginebra San Miguel. The Brewmasters are on their third finals appearance in franchise history, they lost to Ginebra in five games in the best-of-seven title series.