1990 PBA Season - Season Highlights

Season Highlights

• The PBA increased its membership from 6 teams to 8, with the entry of expansion teams, RFM/Cosmos Bottling, Inc. and Pepsi-Cola. The 6 regular PBA teams were allowed to protect 9 from its rosters, the two newcomers are gonna pick those players being put in the expansion pool.
• Formula Shell won their first PBA title after five years, but the biggest story of the year was the walkout of Anejo Rum 65 in Game 6 of the First Conference finals, the 65ers were fined a total of P550,000.
• Presto Tivoli went home with the All-Filipino crown, at the expense of Purefoods Hotdogs, their first title in three years and sixth overall, Coach Jimmy Mariano won his first championship, 1979 Rookie of the year, Arnie Tuadles, fill in the shoes of Presto's injured top gun Allan Caidic in the deciding Game 7, scoring 33 big points.
• With the advent of "Open basketball" being approved, professional basketball players are now allowed to play in the international tournaments such as the Olympics and World championships, the PBA send an all-pro team to the Beijing Asian Games in September, chosen to coach the PBA-backed national team is the Anejo playing coach and PBA's living legend, Robert Jaworski, given only two weeks to prepare, with injuries and problems hounding the team even from the time it was formed, the All-Pro nationals gave the Country a Silver medal finish, behind host China.
• The PBA suffered from gate receipts during the third conference, following the All-pro team's failure to win the basketball Gold, and those two losses to China hurt the nation's pride.
• Purefoods Hotdogs came back from a 0-2 overhaul to win the Third Conference title and their first championship, over Alaska Milk, 3-2, becoming only the second team to have won three straight after falling behind two games to none, duplicating the feat achieved by the Crispa Redmanizers in 1976. Coach Baby Dalupan, the winningest coach, won his 15th PBA title.