1988 San Miguel Beermen season

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1988 San Miguel Beermen season

The Beermen, coached by Norman Black and owned by San Miguel Corporation, played three PBA conferences in 1988 and won two titles.

Open Conference
- Record: 16-9 (64%), finished 1st
- Result: Champions
- Key moment: In September, San Miguel swapped Abet Guidaben to Purefoods for Ramon Fernandez, bringing Fernandez back to San Miguel after his early-1970s stint with the team. The finals against Purefoods went the distance, but SMB rallied from a 2-3 deficit to win the seven-game series, repeating a 1982 achievement by taking the last two games.

All-Filipino Conference
- Record: 13-11 (54.2%), finished 4th
- Result: Semifinals

Reinforced Conference
- Record: 17-6 (73.9%), finished 1st
- Result: Champions
- Import rule change: The league allowed only one old and one new import. Because Norman Black couldn’t pair with Bobby Parks, he teamed with Michael Phelps.
- Result: SMB defeated Shell Rimula-X 4-1 in the finals to defend their title.

Season highlights
- March 20: Open Conference opener, SMB beat Purefoods 119-104. Norman Black had 33 points; Guidaben 28.
- May 19: SMB clinched a finals berth by beating Great Taste 173-137.
- July 10: SMB beat Great Taste 139-132, handing Great Taste its first loss after a 4-0 start.
- July 26: Guidaben scored 30 points and hit a 20-foot shot with five seconds left to edge Añejo Rum 104-103.
- October 2: In the Reinforced Conference, Phelps scored 50 points as Fernandez played his first game back for San Miguel; Guidaben was with Purefoods.
- October 9: SMB remained unbeaten early in the Reinforced Conference; Norman Black had 30 points and 20 rebounds, while Bobby Parks scored 42 for Shell.
- November 10: SMB beat Presto Ice Cream 144-117 to strengthen its hold on the semifinals.
- November 22: SMB defeated Añejo Rum 127-118 to advance toward the finals.

The 1988 season saw San Miguel win two conferences and come close in another, highlighted by a dramatic midseason trade, a strong Open Conference title run, and a Reinforced Conference championship with a new import setup.