1992 Ginebra San Miguel season

The 1992 Ginebra San Miguel season was the 14th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

Off-season transactions

Summary

The defending champions in the First Conference bring back Jervis Cole, who led Ginebra to the championship last year, as their import. With five new players, the brand-new Ginebra won two of their first three games of the season before suffering a five-game losing streak in which one game they played without Jervis Cole, who was suspended for the incident involving him and Presto's Onchie Dela Cruz. The Gins finally scored a victory by repeating over Shell Rimula X, 122-108 on March 15, as Pido Jarencio topscored with 36 points. ^[1] Ginebra lost to Alaska, 111-121 in overtime, in their next game on March 17 and were eliminated, finishing last with an overall 3-win, 8-loss slate.

Ginebra placed sixth in the All-Filipino Conference, winning three of their 10 games in the eliminations, only better than the 2-8 card of Presto and Alaska. It was the first time Ginebra got eliminated in two successive conferences since Sonny Jaworski became the ballclub's playing coach.

Former Best Import winner Jamie Waller return to play for Ginebra in the Third Conference. The Gins were allowed to have an import standing 6-4 as the handicapping rule for being eliminated twice while the rest of the teams will have a 6-1 import. After losing their first game to Alaska, the Ginebras won three straight games, ^[2] then lost in succession in out-of-town matches in Bacolod to Seven-Up, and Iloilo to Swift on October 10 where Swift import Tony Harris shattered all sorts of record by scoring 105 points in the Meaties' 151-147 win. With an even 4-4 card, trouble started brewing on the Ginebra camp regarding import Jamie Waller's actions, but rumors were quickly dispelled when Waller led Ginebra to the semifinals with back-to-back wins over Alaska, 118-115 on October 25, ^[3] and Shell, 112-101 on October 27. ^[4] When Shell import Kelvin Upshaw was kick out and banned by the PBA for failing a drug test, Waller went on his way and left to sympatize with Upshaw. Ginebra decided to bring in a replacement import Danny Jones, going into their highly-anticipated encounter with the Tony Harris-led Swift. Jones debut with 59 points as Ginebra nip Swift, 146-145 on November 3, which got 76 points from Tony Harris. ^[5] The Gins finish the eliminations with a 7-4 won-loss slate. In the semifinal round, the Gins couldn't sustain their winning ways and were twice beaten by eventual finalists Swift and 7-Up. The Ginebras were ousted from the finals race in a controversy involving those two teams that played in the championship series during their December 1 encounter wherein Swift deliberately lose to 7-Up, 154-156, so that Ginebra cannot tied the Uncolas in the standings and lost a chance to earn a playoff. Ginebra placed third in the last conference of the 1992 season.

Occurrences

February 18: In an early grudge match between the two rivals which played for the first conference championship in the past two seasons and were part of player transfers during the off-season where former Ginebra cagers are now with Shell, the Gins beat the Turbo Chargers, 125-117. Their game was so intense that had new Ginebra recruit Pido Jarencio and ex-Gin Rey Cuenco being thrown out of the game after almost a fistfight when Jarencio reacted on a punched thrown by Cuenco on fellow new Ginebra cager Sonny Cabatu, who was also been given a karate chop by ex-Gin Leo Isaac. Earlier in the ballgame, it was playing coach Sonny Jaworski and rookie Mulong Orillosa who were involved in an argument.

Roster

_{Assistant coaches: Arlene Rodriguez / Philip Cezar Team Manager: Bernabe Navarro}

References