FOR the eight teams which failed to reach the semifinals of the PBA Philippine Cup, this one’s going to feel like an offseason in the middle of a season.
Starting the year, the eliminated teams will have more than a two-month break before going back to action in the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup that starts on March 11.
Teams that reached the quarterfinals such as Converge, Rain or Shine, Magnolia, and NLEX at least were able to play until the final week of 2025, with the Elasto Painters the last to go following their 98-89 loss to the Meralco Bolts in their knockout match for the last berth in the semis.
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The coming second window of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers and the Season 50 PBA All-Star weekend caused the long rest.
With the opening conference projected to finish by the first week of February at the latest – that is, if both the semis and finals reach a maximum seven games – the Gilas training camp for the coming second window of the qualifiers immediately follows.
National coach Tim Cone has requested that the league give Gilas at least 10 days or two weeks of practice together before resuming their campaign for a berth in the 2027 World on Feb. 26 and March 1.
Currently sharing the top spot in Group A at 2-0 with Australia, the Filipinos take on the New Zealand Tall Blacks first on the last week of February and then prime up for their showdown with the Boomers o n the first day of March.
Both FIBA qualifiers will be played at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Five days after, the entire league will then to Candon in Ilocos Sur for the annual All-Star weekend set March 6-8.
No All-Star game showcase was held last year as the event, slated in Davao just a week prior to the national elections, was called off due to what the league referred to as a ‘security concern.'
Teams which didn’t make the quarterfinals such as Titan Ultra, Phoenix, Blackwater, and Terrafirma actually have the benefit of an even longer break.
The Fuel Masters had the longest break out of the four teams as they played their last outing on Dec. 14 in a 127-119 loss to Titan or almost a three-month breather for coach Willy Wilson and his boys.
Previously, the league immediately holds the next conference just a week after the previous one ended.
With the World Cup qualifiers extending until late August followed by the 20th Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan in mid-September where Gilas Pilipinas is the defending men’s basketball champion, the PBA’s 50th season will go down as the longest ever in its history.
After it kicked off last Oct. 5, the golden season is expected to end by December of this year.
The Season 51 draft will be held in 2027 yet either on Jan. 3 or 10.
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