2006-07
Posted by John D in 2006-07, Roster
Season in Review:
Purefoods managed to end up with a 10-8 win-loss record. In a playoff game for the second outright quarterfinals berth, the Giants came-from-behind to beat Sta. Lucia to avoid going further down to the grueling wild-card phase.
In the best-of-five quarterfinals, the Chunkee Giants lost to the Talk 'N Text Phone Pals, 3-1. After Marc Pingris got injured in game 2, Purefoods lost the next three games, thus failing to repeat as champions of the Philippine Cup.
Purefoods has renamed its team to the Tender Juicy Giants for the 2007 PBA Fiesta Conference. However, the team paraded with a depleted line-up. Forward-centers Kerby Raymundo and Marc Pingris were loaned to the national team and placed on injured list, respectively. James Yap was also facing issues regarding his marital problems with wife Kris and being snubbed from the National Team. Although Marquin Chandler returned for a second tour of duty with Purefoods, the team had a badly depleted front line that saw them only Richard Yee and Arnold Gamboa manning the slot. Although James Yap successfully removed the distractions affecting his game following the birth of his first son James Jr., the Giants decided to get the next big man available in the PBA to help the team. As a result, they acquired Rommel Adducul from San Miguel Beermen thru a three-team trade with Red Bull Barako which also saw Enrico Villanueva donning a Beermen jersey. Reserve Don Camaso was the casualty of the trade as he was sent to Red Bull. Some PBA teams denounced the trade transaction because of the "restricted player" trade rule in which only top players could be traded for one another to avoid imbalance in the league. But the protests quickly subsided after the PBA approved the said trade after learning that Villanueva was removed from the restricted list and Adducul was finally allowed to play for the Giants.
Purefoods was able to escape early elimination after beating the Welcoat Dragons in the last elimination round game. "Big Game" James Yap scored 41 points to lead the Giants to the wildcard phase, only to be knocked out by the Coca-Cola Tigers where he scored 40 points, which equalled former PBA player Nelson Asaytono's record of scoring 40+ points in back-to-back games, but failed to deliver the win for the team. For his efforts, Yap was picked by Chot Reyes to be part of the national team to play for the FIBA Asia Championship 2007 in Tokushima, Japan where the Philippines ranked ninth out of 16 teams.
Roster:
Kerby Raymundo
Rich Yee
Boyet Bautista
Jun Limpot
Jondan Salvador
Marc Pingris
Roger Yap
James Yap
Paul Artadi
Rey Evangelista
Celedonio Camaso
Noy Castillo
Rommel Adducul