Alfrancis Chua

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Al Francis Chua is a Filipino basketball coach formerly for the Sta. Lucia Realtors in the Philippine Basketball Association. He first coached the Tanduay Rhum Masters in both the Philippine Basketball League and the PBA during the 1990's. Chua was also an assistant coach for Norman Black with the Pop Cola 800's and the Realtors before being promoted to head coach in 2003.

[edit] Coaching career

Chua was the head coach of Tanduay in the PBL and led the team to seven PBL titles with Eric Menk, Chris Cantonjos, Mark Telan, Jomer Rubi among others becoming one of the league's greatest teams.

While coaching Tanduay, he was also an assistant coach for Norman Black with Pop Cola.

After Tanduay entered the PBA in 1999, Chua was named head coach of the team. In his first season, he led the team of Menk, Earl Sonny Alvarado, Pido Jarencio and Telan to the a runner-up finish in the 1999 PBA All-Filipino Conference losing to Formula Shell.

In 2000, he led Tanduay to near title appearances but mainly due to controversies surrounding the team. Despite a star-studded lineup of Alvarado, Menk and newly-acquired players Rudy Hatfield, Jeffrey Cariaso and Dondon Hontiveros, Alvarado, Menk and Hatfield were questioned for their citizenship that further hurt their team's chances.

A year later, Sta Lucia hired Chua as an assistant coach for Black and the Realtors quickly won their first PBA title in the Governors Cup defeating San Miguel in six games.

In 2003, Black left the coaching position and hired Chua as their head coach. He led Sta Lucia to two semifinal appearances in the season. The next two seasons were horrible performances for the Realtors failed to make the semis.

However, in the 2006-07 Philippine Cup, with the addition of rookie Kelly Williams plus the returning Alex Cabagnot and the motivated Marlou Aquino, Chua coached Sta Lucia to a quarterfinals appearance.

Chua was removed as head coach of the Realtors and was replaced by Boyet Fernandez. However, he was retained by management as its consultant.