Year: | 2007 |
Conference Name: | Fiesta Conference |
Duration: | March 4 – July 20, 2007 |
Tv: | ABC |
Best Player: | Mark Cardona |
Best Import: | Rosell Ellis |
Finals Mvp: | Willie Miller |
Champion: | Alaska Aces |
Runner-Up: | Talk 'N Text Phone Pals |
Prevconf Link: | 2005-06 PBA Fiesta Conference |
Prevconf Year: | 2005-06 |
Nextconf Link: | 2008 PBA Fiesta Conference |
Nextconf Year: | 2008 |
Prev Conf: | 2006–07 Philippine |
Prev Conf Link: | 2006–07 PBA Philippine Cup |
Next Conf: | 2007–08 Philippine |
Next Conf Link: | 2007–08 PBA Philippine Cup |
The 2007 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Fiesta Conference or known as the 2007 Talk 'N Text PBA Fiesta Conference for sponsorship reasons, is the second conference of the 2006-07 season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Teams are allowed to pick an import with a maximum height-limit of 6-feet, 6-inches tall.
The tournament began on March 4 and finished on July 20. The schedule will be shortened due to the league's commitment to the Philippine national basketball team while 12 players selected by national team head coach Chot Reyes will not play for their mother teams.
Red Bull Barako is the defending champions of the tournament.[1]
Talk 'N Text, a product of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, was the main sponsor of the tournament. They also sponsored the 2006-07 PBA Philippine Cup that ended a month before the tournament.
The following is the list of imports, which had played for their respective teams at least once, with the returning imports in italics. Highlighted are the imports who stayed with their respective teams for the whole conference.
Name | Team | Debuted | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Alex Compton | March 4 vs. Coca-Cola | |
2 | Charles Clark III | March 4 vs. Coca-Cola | |
3 | Anthony Johnson | March 4 vs. Welcoat | |
4 | Jessie King | March 4 vs. Red Bull | |
5 | James Penny | March 4 vs. Purefoods | |
6 | Shawn Daniels | March 7 vs. Sta. Lucia | |
7 | Marcellus Christian | March 7 vs. Barangay Ginebra | |
8 | Rosell Ellis | March 7 vs. Talk 'N Text | |
9 | Rock Winston | March 7 vs. Air21 | |
10 | James Sullinger | March 7 vs. Alaska | |
11 | Vidal Massiah | March 9 vs. Red Bull | |
12 | Rod Nealy | March 11 vs. Alaska | |
13 | Paul McMillan | March 17 vs. Coca-Cola | |
14 | Marquin Chandler | March 21 vs. San Miguel | |
15 | Galen Young | April 11 vs. Alaska | |
16 | Rob Sanders | April 15 vs. San Miguel | |
17 | Jeff Varem | April 20 vs. Barangay Ginebra | |
18 | Wayland White | May 2 vs. Barangay Ginebra | |
19 | Jamaal Williams | May 2 vs. Air21 | |
20 | Rashad Bell | May 30 vs. Red Bull | |
Prior to Game 1, Sandwich performed "Laban kung Laban," the TV theme song of the PBA.
On Game 1, the Phone Pals raced into a twenty-point lead at the first quarter but the Aces chipped in to lead by a point by halftime. The Phone Pals lost steam as the Aces won the first game. The Phone Pals reversed the roles as the Aces themselves lost steam at the ends of Games 2 and 3 for a Phone Pals 2–1 series lead.
With a 1–3 deficit looming, newly crowned MVP Willie Miller stepped up his performance as he tied his conference-high 29 points to lead the Aces into victory on Game 4. Conference Best Player Mark Cardona blew the Phone Pals chances' when he turned the ball over with 4 seconds with a 2-point deficit to lead a Rosell Ellis tip-in from a Sonny Thoss missed lay-up.
On Game 5, Willie Miller turned cold when the Phone Pals started pulling away. The Piltel franchise notched win #3 to assure a twice-to-beat advantage. Miller, who was severely criticized by a lackluster performance by the MVP, answered his critics with a 37-point output (the best in the Finals by a local) to lead the Aces to a Game 6 win and to force a Game 7.