FILE–PBA trophies for the season. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—For the 13th straight year, Arwind Santos and San Miguel will be opening their campaigns on the same day albeit this time with different schedules.
Santos, who spent more than a decade with the Beermen, will play in the opener of the 2021-22 PBA Governors’ Cup with his new team NorthPort on December 8.
The PBA released the first week of the schedule for for the import conference, which faced delays due to the challenge of bringing in foreign nationals to the country amid travel and quarantine restrictions.
December 8! Can’t wait!!!
Single round 🏀 QF 1-4 with 2x to beat advantage 🏀 Semis best of 5 🏀 Finals best of 7
Here’s the #PBAiTuloyAngLaban 2nd Conference – Governors’ Cup 1st week schedule 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/GQM8YrQif2
— PBA (@pbaconnect) December 3, 2021
The Batang Pier, who acquired Santos in exchange for Vic Manuel, will face Alaska at 3 pm at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
San Miguel, meanwhile, will then close the first day of the competition against NLEX at 6 pm.
The Beermen will field in a lineup without longtime point guard Alex Cabagnot, whom they dealt to Terrafirma for Simon Enciso.
Here’s a look at the imports suiting up for the PBA Governors’ Cup.
The cast of reinforcements is set to be completed soon as the remaining imports are scheduled to fly in this week.
READ: https://t.co/Yl2B76Px4K pic.twitter.com/OFMJ73bX7p
— INQUIRER Sports (@INQUIRERSports) November 26, 2021
The league will be playing daily in the first week of action. Magnolia, TNT and Meralco have no scheduled games yet while Barangay Ginebra makes its debut on Sunday against the Aces.
This is the first time the Governors’ Cup is being played since the pandemic began.