1983 Toyota Silver Coronas season

The 1983 Toyota Silver Coronas season was the ninth and final season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The team revert to Toyota Super Corollas in the Open Conference.

The ballclub would disband on February 1984 and the PBA franchise was sold to the Lucio Tan group of companies.

Colors

               (dark)
               (light)

Summary

Toyota defeated Crispa, 86-84, in the main game of the season's first Conference on March 6, the All-Filipino, which was shelved for two years, as the Silver Coronas spoiled Tommy Manotoc's debut as coach of the Redmanizers. Toyota had a 4-3 won-loss slate after the one-round eliminations, they didn't win a single match in the short semifinal round and placed fourth behind Great Taste Discoverers.

Kevin Porter, an outstanding former Washington Bullet quarterback, was Toyota's import in the Reinforced Filipino Conference, after scoring 50 points in his debut, a 135-141 Toyota loss to Tanduay on May 17, ^[1] Porter went into a slump before leaving the Silver Coronas after eight games, former U/tex import Julius Wayne came in to replace Porter. The Silver Coronas finish with an even 7-7 won-loss card and lost all their quarterfinal matches and were eliminated.

In the Open Conference, former best import awardee Andrew Fields return and his partner was Ralph Brewster. Toyota won their first two games against the Billy Ray Bates led-Crispa, 102-93 on August 30, and Great Taste, 152-127 on September 4, ^[2] but lost their next four outings, starting off with Galerie Dominique's 108-104 upset win, ^[3] and the Super Corollas suffered defeats to Tanduay, Gilbey's and Winston. Going into their last two games in the eliminations, the Super Corollas were coming off a two-game winning streak and a 136-130 triple-overtime win against Gilbey's on October 20, when they were beaten by San Miguel Beer in overtime, 122-117 on October 23. The Tanduay Rhum Makers forced a knockout game with Toyota four nights later by winning over the Super Corollas, 131-119. Both teams finish with six wins and eight losses.

On October 30, Toyota seems headed into the quarterfinal round as they led for most of the way in the playoff match, but the Rhum Makers suddenly came back in the final quarter and escape with a 111-110 win. Tanduay import George Melton partially block Ramon Fernandez' final attempt with four seconds left to preserved their victory.

Occurrences

After being booted out for the second straight conference and suffered their worst finish, seventh in the Open Conference. The Toyota Super Corollas were nearly resurrected as a team with a possible stint in the quarterfinal round when an internal problem surfaced over at the Galerie Dominique camp, the surprise team who made it to the quarterfinals, it was suggested the Super Corollas instead take the place of Galerie Dominique. The Toyota management seemed to be receptive, especially after coming off from a sorry playoff loss to Tanduay, but the jubilation for Toyota fans was short-lived as the PBA board voted in favor of giving financial assistance to the Artists. On that same day the PBA had a board meeting, the Toyota management called for a top-level meeting, not to discuss about the team's failure to act on the said last-minute offer, rather it was a meeting set to discuss the possible disbandment of the ballclub in the coming season due to the recession the country was feeling at that time.

Roster

_{Team Manager: Jack Rodriguez / Ricardo Silverio, Jr}

References