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The 2011–12 PBA season was the 37th season of the Philippine Basketball Association. The season was formally opened on October 2, 2011 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, and finished on August 5, 2012. The season used three-conference format, starting with the Philippine Cup, or the traditional All-Filipino Conference. The mid season Commissioner's Cup featured unlimited height limit for imports. The Governors' Cup became the third and final conference for this season.
The Air21 Express will be renamed as Barako Bull Energy starting this season. The name change occurred after the Lina Group bought 49 percent stake of Energy Food and Drinks Inc., a subsidiary of Photokina Marketing and the exclusive distributor of Red Bull Energy Drink products in the Philippines. The "Energy Boosters" moniker will be dropped and instead the team will be known as "Energy", since there will be a conflict in using the "Boosters" moniker with the Petron Blaze Boosters.
The PBA board approved the 20% salary cap increase and the standardization of game bonuses on September 8. The player salary cap was increased from P350,000 to P420,000. The proposals were approved at the heels of an outburst by Alaska Aces owner Fred Uytengsu during the press conference announcing Tim Cone's resignation as head coach of Alaska. Uytengsu commented that the league is not a level playing field, with some teams paying their players more than the monthly amount set by the PBA.
Coaching changes
Barako Bull Energy (formerly Air21 Express) hired Junel Baculi as head coach, who also was the head coach of the Barako Bull franchise that disbanded in 2010. Baculi will be replacing Bong Ramos, who will slide down as assistant coach.
On September 1, Alaska Aces coach Tim Cone requested to be released from his contract, which is set to expire in 2013. Assistant Joel Banal will take over as head coach.
Two weeks after resigning as head coach of the Alaska Aces, Tim Cone was appointed as the new head coach of the B-Meg Llamados. Richard del Rosario, who was appointed as acting head coach in August was demoted to assistant coach along with former B-meg head coach Jorge Gallent. Gallent later was reassigned as assistant coach of Petron Blaze.
After the PBA Philippine Cup finals, the PBA is slated to return in the PBA Commissioner's Cup. This conference features imports for each team, with an unlimited height ceiling.
Notable events
After a dismal finish in the Philippine Cup, the Lina Group of Companies announced that the Shopinas.com Clickers will be renamed as the Air21 Express starting in the Commissioner's Cup.
On February 2, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines was rumored to sell its PBA team, the Powerade Tigers, to San Miguel Corporation, therefore allowing SMC to own and unprecedented 4 teams in the league. The rumors arose when it was revealed that certain factions in the Coca-Cola management have decided to sell the team. The next day, however, the trade rumors were debunked by Powerade manager JB Baylon.
Due to being the Philippine national basketball team's naturalized player, Marcus Douthit's rights to be signed as an import (despite having naturalized Filipino status) were bidded on by the different PBA teams. The Air21 Express won the rights to sign Douthit after all the other teams passed. Douthit then agreed to play for Air21, with the rule that if he leaves Air21, he cannot play for any other team.
Player movement
Key transactions:
Trades:
On January 27, 2012, sister teams Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, B-Meg Llamados and third team Barako Bull Energy completed a five – player blockbuster deal. In the deal, B-MEG received Gin Kings forward JC Intal and a 2012 2nd round pick from Barako Bull that originally belonged to Air 21, formerly Shopinas.com. Ginebra got Llamados forward Kerby Raymundo and Energy rookie Dylan Ababou. Barako Bull ended up with Gin Kings veteran swingman Ronald Tubid and rookie Reil Cervantes, as well as a second round draft pick in 2014 from Ginebra. This marks the second time that Barako Bull has traded its top draft picks.
On the same day, Air21 completed a four-man trade with the Meralco Bolts. Air21 acquired Nelbert Omolon and Mark Isip from Meralco in exchange for Mark Canlas, Dennis Daa, and a 2012 first-round draft pick that belonged to Meralco originally.
In commemoration of the jersey retirement of Robert Jaworski, the Barangay Ginebra Kings wore their throwback 1985 Ginebra San Miguel white jerseys (with slight modifications, specifically the replacement of the La Tondeña "G" logo with the current GSM yellow logo), on their semifinal game against Petron Blaze.
PBA referee Peter Balao was suspended until the end of the season after a miss call of a three-second violation during the knockout game between the Barako Bull Energy and the Powerade Tigers.
Following the loss of Barako Bull Energy against the Powerade Tigers in their knockout game, Don Allado of Barako Bull posted on his Twitter account his frustrations and mentioned that the PBA games are fixed. The Twitter posts were later deleted by Allado within a day and issued an apology to the league and the PBA officials. PBA Commissioner Chito Salud called Allado to his office to explain his accusations. Allado was later fined Php 500,000; Php 300,000 will go the PBA players educational trust fund and Php 200,000 to a charitable institution of his choice. Allado is also banned for one conference from all PBA related activities. The fine became the largest penalty for a player since Wynne Arboleda's fine after a violent altercation with a fan during their game against Smart Gilas in 2009.
On May 11, 2012 Alaska Aces has agreed to trade center Jay-R Reyes to the Meralco Bolts in exchange for power forward Gabby Espinas. The transaction also gave the Aces the right to switch draft picks with Bolts in the upcoming draft.
On April 16, 2012, coach Joel Banal of the Alaska Aces who was signed to a three-year deal, resigned from the team after losing the quarterfinal series against the Barako Bull Energy. Luigi Trillo, the son of Alaska team manager Joaqui Trillo, assistant coach of Alaska and former head coach of the PBA D-LeagueCebuana Lhuillier Gems, was appointed to replace Banal. Trillo also stated that he will reinstate the triangle offense in Alaska.
If a team outside the top two teams wins four semifinal round games, then it and the second-placed team will playoff for the last finals berth; otherwise, the top 2 teams qualify outright.
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