The Laguna Lakers (or the FedEx-Laguna Lakers) were a professional basketball team in the now-defunct

Metropolitan Basketball Association The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), or Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran from March 7, 1998, to July 26, 2002. History The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998, at the Don Narciso Ramos ...

from 1998 to 2001. The team was owned by Bert Lina, owner of the

Federal Express FedEx Corporation, formerly Federal Express Corporation and later FDX Corporation, is an American multinational conglomerate holding company focused on transportation, e-commerce and business services based in Memphis, Tennessee. The name "Fe ...

franchise in the Philippines. The team moniker was taken as a reference for the province's proximity to Laguna de Baý, a similar action taken by the then-

Minneapolis Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers franchise has a long and storied history, predating the formation of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Founded in 1947, the Lakers are one of the NBA's most famous and successful franchises. As of summer 2012, th ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. The team played its home games at the San Luis Sports Complex.

History

In 1998, the Metropolitan Basketball Association was formed as a regional-based professional league which also challenged the commercial

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...

. The Lakers of coach Bonnie Garcia were paraded by former

University of Manila , mottoeng = ''Country Science and Virtue'' , type = Private Non-sectarian Research Coeducational Basic and Higher education institution , established = , founders = , academic_affili ...

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 The Pampanga Dragons were a professional basketball team of the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1998 to 2000 and in 2002 as Pampanga Stars. The team was owned by Jose Antonio Gonzales II and was named Dragons because the father ...

, 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 The San Juan Kings, previously known as the San Juan Knights, are a professional basketball team representing San Juan, Metro Manila. They played in the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) from 1999 to 2001, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketba ...

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.

William Jones Cup

The Laguna Lakers competed at the

William Jones Cup The R. William Jones Cup (), also known as the Jones Cup, is an international basketball tournament organized by the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) held annually since 1977 in Taiwan. It was named in honor of basketball promoter ...

as the Philippine representative in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. 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 Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (russian: ВК «Локомотив» Новосибирск) is a Russian professional volleyball club, based in Novosibirsk, playing in Russian Volleyball Super League. Achievements * CEV Champions League *: (x1) 2013 * ...

in the

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

third place play-off with the final score of 71-81.

Departure

In 2001, the PBA's

Tanduay Rhum Masters The Tanduay Rhum Makers (1975-1987) and Tanduay Rhum Masters (1999-2001) were two basketball franchises associated with the same liquor brand that played in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The original franchise, owned by Elizald ...

sold its PBA franchise to the Lina group for a reported 60–75 million pesos. The development led to the Lina group's departure from the MBA to concentrate on their new PBA franchise, which became named as the

FedEx Express FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, is a major American cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2020, it is one of the world's largest airlines in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the name ...

. The MBA, as a result, lost its Laguna franchise and one of its biggest sponsors, FedEx, before closing shop at the middle of the 2002 season.

Home Arenas

*San Luis Sports Complex (1998–2001)

1999 Roster

Trivia

*The Lakers are so named because

Laguna Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet d ...

encloses

Laguna de Bay Laguna de Bay (Spanish language, Spanish for "Lagoon/Lake of Bay, Laguna, Bay"; tl, Lawa ng Bay, ), also known as Laguna Lake, is the List of lakes of the Philippines, largest lake in the Philippines. It is located southeast of Metro Manila, b ...

, a lake. In addition, "Laguna" came from

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

word ''lago'', which means "lake."

References

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