The Philippine Basketball Association awards a championship trophy (or cup) to the winning team at the end of each conference (tournament).
To determine a champion for a conference, a double-round elimination (sometimes a classification) round is usually held. After the elimination (or classification) round, the playoffs would be held.
There had been a variety of ways the league conducted its playoffs,[1] such as:
There are two types of conferences: All-Filipino or import-laden. The All-Filipino conferences are tournaments where the teams are prohibited from hiring a foreigner as an additional player. An import-laden conference is a tournament where teams are allowed to hire a foreigner (the "import") as an additional player.
Starting from the PBA's first conference, most finals series are in a best-of-five format. The 1982 PBA Reinforced Filipino Conference is the first finals series that is best-of-seven. Starting the season after that, championship series in import-laden conferences are in a best-of-seven format, while all-Filipino conferences are best-of-five. Starting in 1989, almost finals series are in a best-of-seven format, excluding special conferences like the 1998 PBA Centennial Cup, or if the PBA is forced to shorten the season, like during the 2013–14 season, where the last two conferences were made into best-of-five series to make way for the Philippine national team's participation in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and 2014 Asian Games.
The winning team is said to be the champions of the conference. After each season, there would be no playoffs in order to determine a "season champion."
However, the teams which are both boldfaced and italicized, the Crispa Redmanizers (1976 and 1983), the San Miguel Beermen (1989), the Alaska Milkmen (1996) and the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers (2013–14), hold the distinction of winning all three conferences in one season and have the distinction of winning the "Grand Slam". Winning the Grand Slam is the equivalent of the "season championship," where the team is said to be the undisputed champion in the league.
The league previously holds a "battle for third place" playoff to determine the third-place team in a conference. This practice was abandoned beginning the 2010–11 season.
Starting from the 2010 season, the third-place playoff (popularly known as the "battle for third") was no longer held.
Championships won from conferences shaded in gray above, such as Mobiline's 1998 Centennial Cup and Añejo's 1988 PBA-IBA Championship titles are not included in the table below.
* Guest team
The teams provided were the teams that the player were part of the championship roster. Bold denotes player in the PBA.
| Player | No. of championship | Team/Franchise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Toyota, Tanduay Rhum Makers, San Miguel Beermen | ||
| 16 | Crispa, Tanduay Rhum Makers | ||
| 16 | Crispa, San Miguel Beermen | ||
| 15 | |||
| 15 | Crispa, Great Taste, Purefoods | ||
| 14 | |||
| 13 | |||
| 12 | |||
| 12 | Talk 'N Text Phone Pals, Purefoods Star Hotshots, San Miguel Beermen | ||
| 12 | Alaska, Star Hotshots, Barangay Ginebra | ||
| 11 | Alaska, Purefoods Corned Beef Cowboys, Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel Beermen | ||
| Rafi Reavis | 11 | Coca-Cola Tigers, Barangay Ginebra, Magnolia Hotshots | |
| Luis "Tito" Varela | 10 | Crispa | |
| 10 | |||
| 10 | Purefoods Hotdogs, Alaska | ||
| 10 | Alaska, Coca-Cola Tigers | ||
| Chris Ross | 10 | San Miguel Beermen | |
| Marcio Lassiter | 10 | San Miguel Beermen | |
| June Mar Fajardo | 10 | San Miguel Beermen |
Listed below are the coaches who won at least two PBA championships. Championships won from conferences shaded in gray above, such as Eric Altamirano's 1998 Centennial Cup and Rino Salazar's 1988 PBA-IBA Championship titles are not included in the table below. Both coaches otherwise would have won two titles each if those were included, instead of just one.
| ^ | Denotes coach who is still active | |
| Elected to the PBA Hall of Fame | ||
| Active coach who has been elected to the PBA Hall of Fame |
| Coach | Championships | Champion teams handled | Last championship | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | 25 | 2022–23 Commissioner's (Barangay Ginebra) | |
| align=left style="background:#ff9;" | 15 | 1990 Third Conference (Purefoods) | ||
| align=left style="background:silver;" |
| 11 | 2012–13 Philippine (Talk 'N Text) | |
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | 9 | 2015 Commissioner's (Talk 'N Text) | |
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | 2021 Philippine (TNT) | ||
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | 2022 Philippine (San Miguel) | ||
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | 7 | Swift, Red Bull, Rain or Shine | 2016 Commissioner's (Rain or Shine) |
| align=left style="background:#ff9;" | 6 | U/Tex, San Miguel, Crispa | 1983 Open (Crispa) | |
| align=left style="background:#ff9;" | 5 | 1978 Invitational (Toyota) | ||
| align=left style="background:#ff9;" | 4 | 1982 Open (Toyota) | ||
| align=left style="background:#ff9;" | 1997 Commissioner's (Gordon's Gin) | |||
| align=left | 3 | 1987 Open (Tanduay) | ||
| align=left | 2009 Fiesta (San Miguel) | |||
| align=left | 2009–10 Philippine (Purefoods) | |||
| align=left | 2 | 1995 Commissioner's (Sunkist) | ||
| align=left | 1998 Centennial (Mobiline) --> | |||
| align=left | 1999 All-Filipino (Shell) | |||
| align=left style="background:#cfecec;" | ^ | Alaska, Meralco | 2024 Philippine (Meralco) |