Reinforced Conference champions Stag Pale Pilseners All-Filipino Cup champions Stag Pale Pilseners Danny Floro Cup champions Stag Pale Pilseners Season MVP Marlou Aquino | Runners-up Red Bull Energy Drink Runners-up Casino Rubbing Alcohol Number of teams 9 | |
Duration March 4, 1995 – January 9, 1996 People also search for 1996 Philippine Basketball League season | ||
The 1995–96 season of the Philippine Basketball League (PBL).
Contents
Notable achievements
Under coach Junel Baculi, the PBL-Andoks team won the Asian Interclub basketball championships in Kuala Lumpur, defeating Malaysia-Petronas, 101–82, in the finals. The PBL selection were reinforced by seven-time PBA best import Bobby Parks and former Ginebra import Alexander Coles.
The Stag Pale Pilseners completed a three-conference sweep and a grandslam in their very first season in the PBL. The Pilseners of coach Alfrancis Chua, with the likes of MVP Marlou Aquino, Bal David, Reuben Dela Rosa, Randy Alcantara, Derrick Bughao, Paul Du and best import Antoine Joubert, became the third team to win a title in their first try during the Reinforced Conference, defeating Red Bull Energy Drink in four games. Stag had an easier time scoring a three-game finals sweep in the next two conferences, winning over Casino Rubbing Alcohol in the All-Filipino Cup and repeating over Red Bull in the Danny Floro Cup on January 1996.
Occurrences
The PBL took a two-week break during the month of June to give way to the ABC Championships where most of the top players are members of the national team, the league resume on June 29 with the best-of-three semifinal pairings in the short All-Filipino Cup.
Reinforced Conference
The imports who saw action in this conference were Antoine Joubert (Stag), Ray Reed (Red Bull), who was replaced by Stevie Thompson, Glynn Blackwell (Chowking), Claude Moore (Casino), Gary Gaspard (Kutitap), David Barksdale (Magnolia), Tony Tolbert (Burger Machine), Steve Hall (Ramcar), and Mark Harris (Carol Ann).
Stag and Red Bull played in the finals, the Pale Pilseners finish the semifinal round with 19 wins and 4 losses, followed by Red Bull with a 16-win, 7-loss card. Chowking and Casino gained a playoff for the second finals slot via win 4-of-7 incentive scheme. Casino won against Chowking, 92-73, but the Alcohol Makers in turn, lost to Red Bull on the following day for the right to meet the Pilseners for the championship.
All-Filipino Cup
Three teams; Red Bull, Burger Machine and Carol Ann's were eliminated after a one-round eliminations. In the best-of-three semifinals match-up, Stag prevailed over Kutitap, and Casino won over Oriental Battery to arrange a finals showdown.
1995-96 Danny Floro Cup
Six teams makes it to the quarterfinals after the eliminations. Stag scored a 2-0 sweep over Casino in their best-of-three semifinal series. Red Bull also swept their own series against Kutitap and sealed a finals rematch with the Pale Pilseners.
International Invitational Cup
The short international invitational tournament took place from December 9-17, 1995. Guest teams were Boysen-International Bank of Korea, Hapee Ozeta Slovak Club of the Slovak Republic and the Budweiser King of Guam. Casino Rubbing Alcohol and Slovak were declared co-champions after their final game ended at 97-all. The PBL was forced to let the Slovak squad leave early to catch their flight. The Danny Floro Cup resumes just before Christmas.