1983 Crispa Redmanizers season

The 1983 Crispa Redmanizers season was the ninth season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Colors

Crispa Redmanizers
                    (dark)
                    (light)

Notable achievement

The Crispa Redmanizers won their second PBA Grand Slam by winning all three conferences of the season, duplicating their first three-conference sweep back in 1976. ^[1]

Awards

• Abet Guidaben won his first Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy.
• MVP winner Abet Guidaben, along with Atoy Co and Philip Cezar made it to the Mythical Selection first team.
• Prolific import Billy Ray Bates won the season's Best Import honors in both the Reinforced and Open Conferences.

Summary

Under new head coach Tommy Manotoc, the Crispa Redmanizers lost their first game of the season to Toyota, 84-86, but they went on to sweep all their games in the eliminations, semifinals and the best-of-five finals series against Gilbey's Gin, to win the All-Filipino crown with a 12-game winning streak.

On May 15, the start of the Reinforced Filipino Conference. Crispa paraded an import named Billy Ray Bates, known as the "Black Superman", the 6-foot-3 guard from Mississippi, who played four NBA seasons, debut with 64 points in the Redmanizers' 120-119 win over Great Taste. Crispa swept the first round of eliminations and on June 19, Bates scored 50 points as Crispa repeats over Great Taste, 113-107 in Cebu City, for their ninth straight victory without a loss as the Redmanizers' winning streak reach to 21 games, dating back to the All-Filipino Conference, four days later on June 23, the San Miguel Beermen ended Crispa's amazing 21-game winning run with a 110-99 victory. ^[2] The Redmanizers advances outright in the semifinals along with Great Taste, and they played the Norman Black-led Coffee Makers in the finals series. Crispa trailed 2 games to 1, but won the last two games for their second straight championship of the season.

Billy Ray Bates team up with DeWayne Scales for the Open Conference, the Redmanizers lost to Toyota Super Corollas, 93-102 on August 30, a week after they clinch the second conference crown. After playing seven games in the first round of eliminations, Scales was replaced by Larry Demic. On October 9, Billy Ray Bates scored 46 points to lead Crispa to a 111-96 win over Toyota in what turned out to be the final time the two arch rivals played against each other. Crispa and Great Taste were tied at 9 wins and 5 losses after 14 games and both teams advances into the semifinal round outright. In the four-team semifinals, the Redmanizers were one win and two losses in the first round, but then scored big victories over Gilbey's, 138-122 on November 20, and San Miguel, 136-114 on November 22. In the last playing date of the semifinals, the Redmanizers were forced into a playoff as all four teams ended up with similar 3-win, 3-loss slates. On November 26, Great Taste clinch the first finals berth with a win over Gilbey's Gin, while the Redmanizers arranged a finals rematch with the Coffee Makers by winning over San Miguel Beer in the nightcap. In the championship series, Crispa had an easier time scoring a 3-0 sweep over Great Taste to win their second Grandslam of the season.

Roster

_{Team Manager: Danny Floro}

References