| Crispa–Toyota rivalry | |||||||||||||||||
| Team1: | Crispa | ||||||||||||||||
| Team2: | Toyota | ||||||||||||||||
| First Contested: | May 10, 1975 (PBA) | ||||||||||||||||
| Alltimerecord: | 65–58, Crispa | ||||||||||||||||
| Mostrecent: | October 9, 1983 (PBA) | ||||||||||||||||
| Total: | 123 | ||||||||||||||||
| League: | Philippine Basketball Association | ||||||||||||||||
| Section Header: | History | ||||||||||||||||
| Section Info: |
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The Crispa-Toyota rivalry was between the now-defunct PBA teams — the Crispa Redmanizers and the Toyota Tamaraws. The two teams dominated the PBA from 1975 to 1983, winning 21 out of the possible 26 PBA titles of those seasons. Such was their popularity that whenever these two teams met on the basketball court, the streets of Metro Manila and in the Philippine provinces would be virtually deserted, as most people, especially the PBA fans, would be focused on their TV and radio sets, watching or listening to the coverage of the game.
The rivalry was preceded by that between Crispa and the Meralco Reddy Kilowatts in the Manila Industrial Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA). After the Meralco team disbanded in 1972, most of its former players went on to form the core of a new team, the Komatsu Komets (later renamed, Toyota Comets) in 1973.[1]
The first championship matchup between the two teams took place during the 1974 MICAA All-Filipino tournament. The Redmanizers scored a 2–0 sweep, winning the title-clinching game on October 15, 1974. The Redmanizers closed the game in the last 42 seconds to win, 103–99, before a crowd of 14,000 at the Araneta Coliseum.[2]
When the PBA was formed in 1975, the two teams dominated the league during its early years.
They faced each other in the finals for six consecutive conferences in the PBA's first two seasons in 1975-1976. Toyota gained the headstart, winning their first two championships in the league's maiden season. After Crispa denied Toyota of a grand slam in 1975, by winning the third conference All-Philippine championship in a pulsating 3–2 series victory, the Redmanizers defeated the Comets in all three conferences the following year in 1976, thus becoming the league's first grand slam winner.
After the 1976 season, the two rivals would face each other again during finals of the 1979 season All-Filipino, with Crispa beating Toyota. The Toyota Tamaraws finally won against the Redmanizers, winning the 1979 Invitational championship.
The final championship face-off between the two teams was during the 1981 Open Conference. The Toyota Super Diesels defeated the Crispa Redmanizers, 103–97, in the fifth and final game of the best-of-five title series on July 25, 1981. The count in the finals meeting was six wins for Crispa and four for Toyota.
Their final official PBA game took place on October 9, 1983, with Crispa winning, 111–96.
In terms of cumulative PBA games played between each other (1975-1983), Crispa won 65 games as against 58 to Toyota.
In February 15, 1984, Toyota's PBA franchise was sold to Shareholdings, Inc. of the Lucio Tan group. The following year, the PBA franchise of the Crispa team was sold to Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation.
The rivalry of both teams is still remembered to this day by older basketball fans, sharing countless stories of the historic rivalry. Since the disbandment of both teams, there were a few short-lived rivalries in the PBA that followed, but not as intense and anticipated as to this rivalry.
Players from both teams garnered instant popularity outside of the playing court. Such was evident with Robert Jaworski's senatorial victory in 1998, Ramon Fernandez's and Philip Cezar's activities within the sport, and the several movie and television show appearances of Atoy Co, Bernie Fabiosa among others.
| align=left width=6% | Team | width=3% | 1 | width=3% | 2 | width=3% | 3 | width=3% | 4 | width=4% | Tot. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crispa | 14 | 11 | 17 | 19 | 61 | ||||||
| Toyota | 16 | 18 | 13 | 18 | 65 |
Although the players were past their prime, it did not look like they lost a step at all as each possession was tenaciously fought. The game was a hotly contested match which saw the lead change hands many times, a virtual flashback to both teams' glory days in the late seventies and early eighties.
Toyota won the reunion game 65-61 but not without some late-game magic from Jaworski. After Adornado's three-pointer with under a minute left to cut the deficit at 62–61, Toyota teammate and former rival Fernandez passed the ball to Jaworski on the outside. Jaworski hit the three-pointer to put the game away for good, to the delight of the huge crowd. Many saw the play as a reversal of the memorable game-winner in the 1989 All-Star Game, where Fernandez scored the game winning shot from a Jaworski pass and saw both players publicly end their well-known feud.
Toyota was coached by Dante Silverio, with Jaworski also lending some of his coaching tactics, while Crispa was coached by the legendary Baby Dalupan. Terry Saldaña won the MVP of the game after posting a double-double for the Tamaraws. Although the losing Redmanizers called for a rematch, there has been no serious talk of a potential rematch by both teams.
On 28 May 2005, to celebrate the PBA's 30th Anniversary, the PBA held PBA's Greatest Game, a match featuring many star players from the league's long history. The game featured the Greats team coached by Robert Jaworski, and included a few former Toyota players. On the other side, coach Baby Dalupan had his Legends team, which featured several former Crispa players. The game was won by the Legends, 96–92, but the stars of that match were the greats of the younger generation.
In retrospect, the Crispa–Toyota rivalry was one of the most colorful episodes in Philippine sports, and ensured the popularity of the PBA and of basketball in the country.
From 1975 to 1983:
| Type | bgcolor=green | Crispa Redmanizers | bgcolor=yellow | Toyota Tamaraws |
| Championships | 13 | 9 | ||
| All-Filipino | 6 | 2 | ||
| Reinforced Filipino | 2 | 1 | ||
| Invitational championship | 0 | 3 | ||
| Open | 3 | 3 | ||
| All-Philippine championship | 2 | 0 | ||
| Wins* | 65 | 59 | ||
| MVP awards | 6 | 2 | ||
| Rookies of the Year | 1 | 2 | ||
| Mythical 5 awards | 21 | 17 | ||
| Best Import awards | 2 | 2 | ||
| PBA 25th anniversary team members | 7 | 4 | ||
| PBA Hall of Fame inductees | 6 | 5 |
From 1975 to 1983:
| Year | bgcolor=green | Crispa | bgcolor=yellow | Toyota | 1st Conference | 2nd Conference | 3rd Conference |
| 1975 | 9 | 12 | |||||
| 1976 | 13 | 9 | |||||
| 1977 | 7 | 3 | |||||
| 1978 | 5 | 4 | |||||
| 1979 | 8 | 10 | |||||
| 1980 | 8 | 6 | |||||
| 1981 | 6 | 5 | |||||
| 1982 | 5 | 7 | |||||
| 1983 | 4 | 2 | |||||
| Total | 65 | 58 |