1986 Great Taste Coffee Makers season

The 1986 Great Taste Coffee Makers season was the 12th season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).

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Summary

The Great Taste Coffee Makers, which failed to win the Grandslam last season, had the pair of Jeff Collins, a former best import awardee who led the CFC ballclub to a title back in 1984, and Mike Wilson as their imports for the first conference. Great Taste won their opening game against Manila Beer, 90-86 on April 6, the Coffee Makers were tied with Alaska and Tanduay in the first round of eliminations, Jeff Collins' partner Mike Wilson was replaced by Gregory Jones, who in turn, was replaced by Michael Holton from UCLA. Great Taste pulled away in the second round and as expected, emerged as the best team in the eliminations with an 8-2 won-loss card. The Coffee Makers return to the finals against Tanduay Rhum, which had Rob Williams and Andre McCoy as their imports, Great Taste was the odds-on favorite to win the title mainly with their championship experience, but the Rhum Makers were determined to end a long-drought and gave their franchise its first PBA title, Great Taste lost to Tanduay in six games in the Best-of-seven title series.

As defending champions in the All-Filipino Conference, Great Taste won their first two matches against Alaska and Manila Beer ^[1] before losing to Tanduay, 95-103 on July 20 in Iloilo, the Coffee Makers and the Rhum Makers advances in the semifinals outright with similar 5-win, 1-loss slates. In the semifinal round, Great Taste, Tanduay and Ginebra were locked in a three-way battle for the finals berth with 3 wins and 2 losses each going into the last playing date on August 21, Ginebra clinch the first finals seat with a win over Shell in the first game while Tanduay frustrated Great Taste for the second time in the season, beating the Coffee Makers, 115-107 in the main game.

Great Taste brought in Johnny Brown and Eric Turner, a less-exciting import combination compared to other teams, for the third conference, after six games in the eliminations with an even 3-3 won-loss card, Brown and Turner were replaced by Lewis Jackson and Alvin Franklin, the Coffee Makers were the last among the four teams to enter the semifinal round. Great Taste placed third in the season-ending conference.

Occurrences

On July 29, guard Fritz Gaston announces his retirement after 8 seasons and played his last game in Great Taste' 111-98 win over Ginebra, Gaston has chosen to study at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) under the players trust fund, where he will take up a Master's degree in Business Management. Gaston is the first PBA cager to avail of the trust fund which was designed to give education to any PBA player or his dependent. Commissioner Mariano Yenko handed him the check worth P45,000 before the start of the game, replacing Fritz Gaston in the Great Taste line-up is another comebacking player Renato Kabigting. ^[2]

Roster

References