The 1997 Pop Cola Bottlers season was the 8th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Occurrences
Starting the Commissioners Cup, coach Derrick Pumaren was replaced by Arturo Valenzona, whose last coaching job in the PBA was nine years ago. Valenzona chooses Alfrancis Chua as his assistant coach while Pumaren remain as a team consultant.
After Pop Cola's failure to reach the semifinals for the fifth straight time, a player-coach trade took place between the two teams that didn't advance in the Commissioner's Cup semifinal round, the Bottlers acquired Norman Black from Mobiline as their head coach along with Elpidio Villamin and Peter Martin in exchange for guard Ato Agustin and their former coach Derrick Pumaren, who has now moved over to the Mobiline camp. Upon Norman Black's entry at Pop Cola, Alfrancis Chua was retain as assistant coach while Arturo Valenzona was relegated to team consultant.
On October 27, Pop Cola forward Kenneth Duremdes and center Edgar Tanuan were traded to Alaska in exchange for Dwight Lago and Boyet Fernandez.