Longest season ahead as PBA reiterates Gilas support

Gilas Pilipinas celebrate its win over Saudi Arabia in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

LAS VEGAS—The 50th PBA Season will be one for the books in a lot of ways.

Count the long way, too.

Fourteen months it will take for the season to conclude past Christmas next year, with the league toasting as many as three conference champions and hopefully—as to why this season will take this long—a successful gold medal defense in the Asian Games.

Full backing of the Gilas Pilipinas national squad means that there will be a longer-than-usual break that starts in late-September before the Philippine Five travels to Nagoya in Japan to defend the Asiad gold that matters most back home.

“They (Gilas) have the full backing of their PBA,” board of governors chair Ricky Vargas told a handful of reporters at the conclusion on Thursday of their planning session at MGM Grand here.

The country snapped a 61-year gold medal drought in China in 2023 when it beat Jordan in the title game. It was a memorable run to the gold, counting the improbable rally the Filipinos completed against the host Chinese in the Final Four.

To prepare as best as it can for the Asiad, the league will go through its first two conferences practically non-stop as the country fields a different version of Gilas that will try to win the Southeast Asian Games gold later this year in Thailand.

Helping the national program was a big part of the board’s agenda when it came to Sin City to plot activities for their golden season, as each team governor stressed that making it back to the Fiba World Cup and maybe the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 remain the targets.

“Our theme of ‘Solid ang galing, Solid ang laban,’ also means that [the PBA’s] support for Gilas is as solid as ever,” Vargas told the Inquirer. “Simply put, we want to [be able to] go back to the Olympics.”

The break between conferences that the league will give Gilas will also provide the national team program of coach Tim Cone to play at least two international teams in a pocket tournament before departing for Japan.

Vargas and 10 other members of the league’s board wrapped up what they came here to do, and that is make sure that the landmark season of Asia’s pioneering professional league gets started for its next 50 years on the right track on Oct. 4.

With the extended season, the league has also penciled a January 2027 date for its Draft. And that means that players who will see action in the UAAP’s next season can enlist in the proceedings without needing to sacrifice their final years of eligibility.

Imports of unlimited height will reinforce teams in the Governors’ Cup.