PBA Commissioner's Cup

PBA Commissioner's Cup

Most recent season or competition: 2024–25 PBA Commissioner's Cup
The PBA Commissioner's Cup trophy won by the Alaska Aces in 2013.
Founded	1993; 31 years ago (1993)
First season	1993
Most recent champion(s)	San Miguel Beermen (5th title) (2023–24)

The PBA Commissioner's Cup is a tournament of the Philippine Basketball Association. Along with the PBA Governors' Cup, the tournament (also named as "conference") is one of the two competitions in a PBA season that allows teams to hire a single foreign player, also known as an "import". The tournament was first held in 1993 as the PBA season's second competition.

The tournament was discontinued when the Invitational Championship was reintroduced in 2003. From 2004 to 2010, the league decreased their tournaments per season from three to two competitions; one All-Filipino tournament, named as the Philippine Cup and one with imports, named as the Fiesta Conference The tournament was re-instated in 2011 as the second competition of the PBA season after the league re-adopted the three conference format.

The Commissioner's Cup also refers to the trophy awarded to the champion team.

During the 1993 PBA season, the league moved the All-Filipino Conference as the first tournament of the season and made the Second Conference as the Commissioner's Cup, a reference to the PBA Commissioner. The conference was the second tournament held in a PBA season.

The Swift/Sunkist franchise won the tournament in 1993 and 1995.^[1] Purefoods, with Kenny Redfield as import and Chot Reyes as head coach, defeated Alaska in 1994.

During Alaska's grandslam season of 1996, they won the Commissioners Cup title over Shell in a grueling seven-game series.^[2] The Gordon's Gin Boars ended their six-year drought, winning over the Milkmen in 1997, giving playing coach Robert Jaworski his last PBA title on both capacities.^[3] A year later, Alaska had Devin Davis as import to win the title over San Miguel.^[4]

From 1999 to 2000, San Miguel won the Commissioners Cup with Terquin Mott and Stephen Howard as imports.^[5] But in 2001, the Beermen were upset by the Red Bull Thunder, with Best Import Antonio Lang in six games.^[6][7]

In 2002, with most of the teams' star players are with the national squad, the PBA once again allowed teams to take two imports with a combined 13 feet and six inches maximum height limit.^[8] Red Bull won the series over Talk 'N Text in seven games, its second straight.^[7] No team has won two straight Commissioner's Cups since then.

The tournament was retired in 2003 after the re-introduction of the Invitational Championship as the second conference of the season but was eventually reactivated in 2011 after the league restored the three-conference season format. The 2011 Commissioner's Cup also saw the return of Smart Gilas, the Philippine national team, to the PBA after last playing in the 2009–10 Philippine Cup.^[9] They became the first national team to qualify for the playoffs.^[10] However, they would be defeated by the Barangay Ginebra Kings in the semifinals.^[9] The Kings would then lose to the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters in the finals in six games.^[11]

In 2020, the Commissioner's Cup was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[12] The following season saw only two conferences, the Philippine Cup and the Governors' Cup.^[13] It made its return during the 2022–23 season.^[14] In this season, the Bay Area Dragons joined the league as a guest team.^[10] Although they had they finished first in the standings in the elimination rounds, they would lose to Ginebra in the finals. For the 2023–24 season, the Commissioner's Cup was the opening tournament.^[15][16]

From 1993 to 1997, the teams were divided into two groups in the group stage. The teams in the same group will play against each other once and against teams in the other group twice. After the eliminations, the top five teams will advance to a double-round robin semifinals. A playoff incentive will be given to a team that will win five of their eight semifinal games should they fail to get the top two finals berths. The top two teams (or the No. 1 team and the winner of the playoff between team with at least 5 semifinal wins and the No. 2 team) will face each other in a best-of-seven championship series. In 1995, a slightly modified post eliminations format was adopted. Instead, the top six teams will advance to the quarterfinal round for another single round robin. The top four team will then be seeded in a best-of-five series with the winners advancing to the finals.

In 1998, the league adopted a quarterfinal-semifinal playoff format with the top two seeds advancing automatically to the semifinals and the next four teams will be matched up in the quarterfinals. The winners will advance to the semifinal round and to compete against the two top seeded teams in a best-of-five series. The winners of the semifinal round will then advance to the best-of-seven championship series. This format was slightly modified due to the entry of the Tanduay Rhum Masters in 1999. The top eight teams after a round-robin regular round will advance to the quarterfinals. The top two seeds will have a twice-to-beat advantage against the last two seeded teams. Other seeded teams will compete in a best-of-three playoffs. The winners will compete in a best-of-five semifinals series. Then the winners of the semifinals will advance to a best-of-seven finals series.

After the reintroduction of the tournament in 2011, the league adopted a tournament format similar on what was used in 1998. The top two teams will gain automatic semifinals seed while the next four teams will compete in a best-of-three quarterfinals.

From the 2013 edition of the tournament, the playoff format was revised and adopted the similar playoff format used for the Philippine Cup, in which the first two teams will gain a twice to beat advantage against the last two seeded teams and the other teams will compete for a best of three playoffs.

The height limit for import players varies from every year. In the tournament's reintroduction in 2011, the height limit was 6'4" (1.93 m). In 2012, the league removed the height restrictions.^[17] The handicapping system was reinstated in 2014, where the height limit of 6'9" (2.06 m) was imposed for the playoff teams of the previous Philippine Cup.^[18] In 2017, the limit was 6'10" (2.08 m) for all teams.^[19] The limit stayed at that height until the 2023–24 season, when the height limit was lowered to 6'9" (2.06 m).^[20]

The trophy design used since the 1994 season features the Commissioner's Cup with the league logo at the front. The cup is placed in a base where the name of and the year of the tournament is engraved. Red, blue and yellow ribbons were placed in the handles of the trophy, mirroring the colors in the PBA logo. The winner keeps permanent possession of the trophy and a new one is created every year. In 2012, the trophy's cup handles were modified and the league logo was replaced with the tournament's season logo.

A prototype version of this trophy, first shown during the 1994 PBA opening ceremonies, is on display at the lobby of the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City.

* Defunct franchise

Year	Best Import	Team
1993	Ronnie Thompkins	Swift
1994	Ken Redfield	Purefoods
1995	Ronnie Grandison	Sunkist
1996	Ken Redfield (2)	Shell
1997	Jeff Ward	San Miguel
1998	Devin Davis	Alaska
1999	Terquin Mott	San Miguel
2000	Ansu Sesay	Sta. Lucia
2001	Antonio Lang	Red Bull
2002	Jerald Honeycutt	Talk 'N Text
2011	Nate Brumfield	Barangay Ginebra
2012	Denzel Bowles	B-Meg
2013	Robert Dozier	Alaska
2014	Richard Howell	Talk 'N Text
2015	Wayne Chism	Rain or Shine
2016	Arinze Onuaku	Meralco
2017	Charles Rhodes	San Miguel
2018	Justin Brownlee	Barangay Ginebra
2019	Terrence Jones	TNT
2022–23	Justin Brownlee (2)	Barangay Ginebra
2023–24	Johnathan Williams	Phoenix Super LPG

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