Laguna Lakers
| Laguna Lakers | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leagues | Metropolitan Basketball Association |
| Founded | 1998 |
| History |
Laguna Lakers 1998-2001 FedEx-Laguna Lakers 2001 |
| Arena | San Luis Sports Complex |
| Location | Laguna, Philippines |
| Team colors | Purple and white |
The Laguna Lakers (or the FedEx-Laguna Lakers) were a professional basketball team in the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2001. The team was owned by Bert Lina, owner of the Federal Express franchise in the Philippines. The team moniker was taken as a reference for the province's proximity to Laguna de Bay, a similar action taken by the then-Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association. The team played its home games at the San Luis Sports Complex.
In 1998, the Metropolitan Basketball Association was formed as a regional-based professional league which also challenged the commercial Philippine Basketball Association. The Lakers were paraded by former University of Manila stars Biboy Simon and Jovy Sese, Manuel Luis Quezon University standout Wynne Arboleda and the former Letran Knights high-flying Mike Garcia, known for wearing different shoe colors and his dunks.
The Lakers went 14–8 in the inaugural year but failed to enter the Northern Conference Finals. Simon recorded an MBA record 54 points in one game, which remained until the league's closure. In 1999, the Lakers went 16–14 in the elimination round and made the playoffs for the second straight year. The team added fil-Americans Cris Clay and Rudy Hatfield to bolster their lineup. However, Laguna was eliminated by the Pampanga Dragons, in a hard-fought three-game Wildcard series which saw Dragons point guard Roel Bravo hitting a three-pointer to give Pampanga the win.
In 2000, Laguna made its only MBA finals appearance in the Crossover Conference tournament, losing to the San Juan Knights in the finals. The Lakers made it to the National Playoffs, only to be eliminated by the same Knights team, 2–0. Jeff Flowers joined the team to power the Lakers frontline.
Laguna was renamed as the FedEx-Laguna Lakers for the 2001 season but lost to San Juan in the playoffs for the third-straight time.
The Laguna Lakers competed at the William Jones Cup as the Philippine representative in 2000 and 2001. In the 2001 edition, the Fed-Ex Laguna Lakers, with some players from the Philippine national youth team, finished fourth after losing to Russian basketball team, Lokomotiv Novosibirsk in the de facto third place play-off with the final score of 71-81.
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