by Henry L. Liao

Perfection works both ways.

In PBA history, the Walk-Tall Jeans/Crispa Redmanizers own the longest winning streak at 19 games. It happened during the All-Filipino Conference (third conference) of the 1980 season from September 30-December 9.

Walk Tall was looking for a 20-game sweep of the All-Filipino tournament heading into Game 3 of the best-of-five finals against arch-nemesis, having led the series 2-0. But stranger things happened. Toyota team manager Pablo Carlos fired head coach Fort Acuna at HALFTIME of the game for refusing to field in Robert Jaworski in the entire first half.

Ironically, the Tamaraws won the game to extend the series to a Game 4 even though there were reports that Walk-Tall would be dropping the game anyway. The Redmanizers won in Game 4 to finish with a 20-1 record overall in retaining the All-Filipino crown.

What about the other end of the spectrum?

Blackwater Elite dropped all its 11 games in the ongoing All-Filipino conference. Before that, Blackwater lost its final eight assignments in the 2020 “bubble” competitions in Pampanga. Combined, that’s a 19-game losing streak – the longest in PBA annals.

The infamous record for most consecutive losses in a SINGLE conference in PBA history belongs to Shopinas.com (Air21) Clickers, who were 0-14 during the 2011-12 Philippine Cup from October 5-December 8, 2011. Coach Franz Pumaren remembers it well.

19 and 19 – in PBA history.