1997 PBA season

DurationFebruary 16 – December 14, 1997

Teams8

1997 PBA season

Duration	February 16 – December 14, 1997
Teams	8
TV partner	Vintage Sports (IBC)
1997 PBA Draft
Top draft pick	Andy Seigle
Picked by	Mobiline Cellulars
Season MVP	Alvin Patrimonio (Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies)
All-Filipino Cup champions	Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys
All-Filipino Cup runners-up	Gordon's Gin Boars
Commissioner's Cup champions	Gordon's Gin Boars
Commissioner's Cup runners-up	Alaska Milkmen
Governors Cup champions	Alaska Milkmen
Governors Cup runners-up	Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies
Seasons
← 1996 1998 →

The 1997 PBA season was the 23rd season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Executive committee

Emilio P. Bernardino, Jr. (Commissioner)
Nazario L. Avendaño (Chairman, representing San Miguel Beermen)
Bernabe L. Navarro, Jr. (Vice-Chairman, representing Gordon's Gin Boars)
Reynaldo G. Gamboa (Treasurer, representing Formula Shell Zoommasters)

Teams

Team	Company	Governor	Alternate Governor
Alaska Milkmen	Alaska Milk Corporation	Wilfred Steven Uytengsu	Joaquin Trillo
Formula Shell Zoommasters	Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation	Reynaldo Gamboa	Eliseo Santiago
Gordon's Gin Boars	La Tondeña Distillers, Inc.	Bernabe Navarro, Jr.	Roberto Eduardo
Mobiline Phone Pals	Lapanday Holdings Corporation	Luis F. Lorenzo	Ignatius F. Yenko
Pop Cola 800s	RFM Corporation	Elmer Yanga	Atty. Aurora Timbol
Purefoods Tender Juicy Hotdogs	Purefoods Corporation	Teodoro Dimayuga	Eliezer Capacio
San Miguel Beermen	San Miguel Corporation	Nazario Avendaño
Sta. Lucia Realtors	Sta. Lucia Realty and Development Corporation	Manuel Encarnado	Vicente R. Santos

Season highlights

For the first time in league history, the top two picks of the Annual Rookie draft were born outside the Philippines, 6–9 Andrew John Seigle, and Nic Belasco were selected at numbers one and two, respectively.^[1]^[2]
Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys and Gordon's Gin Boars (formerly Ginebra) played in the All-Filipino Cup finals. This is only the second time the two rivals meet in a championship series. Gordon's playing coach Sonny Jaworski became the oldest player to play in a PBA finals series at age 51. Purefoods rookie coach Eric Altamirano won his first title as a head mentor.
Gordon's Gin Boars ended a six-year title drought for the La Tondeña franchise by winning the Commissioner's Cup title over defending champion Alaska Milkmen.
The Alaska Milkmen retains the Governors' Cup title for the fourth straight time and defend the only crown left in their grandslam conquest last season. Alaska has overtaken the defunct Presto franchise as the fourth winningest ballclub in the PBA.
Alvin Patrimonio won his fourth MVP award, tying Ramon Fernandez for the most number of MVP awards.^[3]

Opening ceremonies

The muses for the participating teams are as follows:

Team	Muse
Alaska Milkmen	Carmela Lastimosa & Sha Sha Hawkins
Formula Shell Zoom Masters	Teresa Herrera
Gordon's Gin Boars	Ruffa Mae Quinto
Mobiline Cellulars	Joey Mead
Pop Cola Bottlers	Gill Baltazar
Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys	Ciara Sotto
San Miguel Beermen	Leng Damiles
Sta. Lucia Realtors	Sherilyn Reyes

Champions

All-Filipino Cup: Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys
Commissioner's Cup: Gordon's Gin Boars
Governor's Cup: Alaska Milkmen
Team with best win–loss percentage: Alaska Milkmen (35–25, .583)
Best Team of the Year: Alaska Milkmen (2nd)

All-Filipino Cup

Pos	Team v t e	W	L	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Gordon's Gin Boars	10	4	.714	—	Semifinal round
2	Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys	8	6	.571	2
3	Sta. Lucia Realtors	8	6	.571	2
4	San Miguel Beermen	7	7	.500	3
5	Mobiline Cellulars	7	7	.500	3
6	Alaska Milkmen	6	8	.429	4
7	Pop Cola Bottlers	5	9	.357	5
8	Formula Shell Zoom Masters	5	9	.357	5

Team 1	Score	Team 2
(3) Sta. Lucia Realtors	75–64	(4) San Miguel Beermen

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7
(1) Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys	4–2	(2) Gordon's Gin Boars	103–90	91–73	83–92	94–84	95–96	82–73	—

Commissioner's Cup

Pos	Team v t e	W	L	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Gordon's Gin Boars	6	4	.600	—	Semifinal round
2	San Miguel Beermen	6	4	.600	—
3	Formula Shell Zoom Masters	6	4	.600	—
4	Sta. Lucia Realtors	6	4	.600	—
5	Alaska Milkmen	5	5	.500	1
6	Mobiline Cellulars	4	6	.400	2
7	Pop Cola Bottlers	4	6	.400	2
8	Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys	3	7	.300	3

Team 1	Score	Team 2
(3) San Miguel Beermen	96–95	(4) Sta. Lucia Realtors

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7
(1) Alaska Milkmen	2–4	(2) Gordon's Gin Boars	89–99	96–102	86–87	108–90	86–81	79–105	—

Governors' Cup

Pos	Team v t e	W	L	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	San Miguel Beermen	9	5	.643^[a]	—	Advance to semifinals
2	Alaska Milkmen	9	5	.643^[a]	—
3	Sta. Lucia Realtors	9	5	.643^[a]	—	Twice-to-beat in the quarterfinals
4	Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies	8	6	.571	1
5	Mobiline Cellulars	7	7	.500^[b]	2	Twice-to-win in the quarterfinals
6	Gordon's Gin Boars	7	7	.500^[b]	2
7	Pop Cola Sizzlers	5	9	.357	4
8	Formula Shell Zoom Masters	2	12	.143	7

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2
(3) Sta. Lucia Realtors*	1–0	(6) Gordon's Gin Boars	102–93	—
(4) Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies*	1–0	(5) Mobiline Phone Pals	93–91	—

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5
(1) San Miguel Beermen	2–3	(4) Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies	96–82	73–80	91–89	84–94	89–91
(2) Alaska Milkmen	3–0	(3) Sta. Lucia Realtors	83–69	107–87	95–80	—	—

Team 1	Score	Team 2
(1) San Miguel Beermen	99–89	(3) Sta. Lucia Realtors

Team 1	Series	Team 2	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7
(2) Alaska Milkmen	4–1	(4) Purefoods Carne Norte Beefies	76–87	85–79	96–85	92–75	94–66	—	—

Individual awards

Most Valuable Player: Alvin Patrimonio (Purefoods)
Rookie of the Year: Andy Seigle (Mobiline)
Sportsmanship Award: Freddie Abuda (San Miguel)
Most Improved Player: Bong Ravena (Purefoods)
Defensive Player of the Year: Freddie Abuda (San Miguel)
Mythical Five:
- Johnny Abarrientos (Alaska)
- Alvin Patrimonio (Purefoods)
- Marlou Aquino (Gordon's Gin)
- Vince Hizon (Gordon's Gin)
- Nelson Asaytono (San Miguel)
Mythical Second Team:
- Noli Locsin (Gordon's Gin)
- Dindo Pumaren (Purefoods)
- Bong Ravena (Purefoods)
- Jun Limpot (Sta. Lucia)
- Jerry Codiñera (Purefoods)
All Defensive Team:
- Jerry Codiñera (Purefoods)
- Freddie Abuda (San Miguel)
- Johnny Abarrientos (Alaska)
- Jeffrey Cariaso (Mobiline)
- Marlou Aquino (Gordon's Gin)

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Best finish
1	Alaska Milkmen	60	35	25	.583	Champions
2	Gordon's Gin Boars	68	39	29	.574	Champions
3	San Miguel Beermen	63	35	28	.556	Third place
4	Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys/Carne Norte Beefies	63	34	29	.540	Champions
5	Sta. Lucia Realtors	61	31	30	.508	Third place
6	Mobiline Phone Pals	47	20	27	.426	Semifinalist
7	Pop Cola Bottlers/Sizzlers	38	14	24	.368	Elimination round
8	Formula Shell Zoom Masters	46	15	31	.326	Semifinalist

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT
1	Gordon's Gin Boars	38	23	15	.605
2	Sta. Lucia Realtors	38	23	15	.605
3	San Miguel Beermen	38	22	16	.579
4	Alaska Milkmen	38	20	18	.526
5	Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys/Carne Norte Beefies	38	19	19	.500
6	Mobiline Phone Pals	38	18	20	.474
7	Pop Cola Bottlers/Sizzlers	38	14	24	.368
8	Formula Shell Zoom Masters	38	13	25	.342

Executive committee

Teams

Season highlights

Opening ceremonies

Champions

All-Filipino Cup

Elimination round

Semifinal round

Third place playoff

Finals

Commissioner's Cup

Elimination round

Semifinal round

Third place playoff

Finals

Governors' Cup

Elimination round

Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Third place playoff

Finals

Individual awards

Awards given by the PBA Press Corps

Cumulative standings

Elimination round

Playoffs

References

Related Articles

Quarterfinals (Higher seeds twice-to-beat)			Semifinals (Best-of-5)			Finals (Best-of-7)

			1	San Miguel	2
4	Purefoods	93	4	Purefoods	3
5	Mobiline	91				4	Purefoods	1
						2	Alaska	4
			2	Alaska	3
3	Sta. Lucia	102	3	Sta. Lucia	0
6	Gordon's Gin	93				Third place

						1	San Miguel	99
						3	Sta. Lucia	89