The 2018–19 MPBL season, also known as the MPBL Datu Cup, was the second season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. The regular season began on June 12, 2018 with the opening ceremonies Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, and ended on March 11, 2019. The league also held its first ever All-Star Game at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on March 2, 2019. The playoffs then began on March 12, 2019 and ended on April 25, 2019 when the San Juan Knights defeated the Davao Occidental Tigers in five games in the 2019 MPBL finals.
This season saw sixteen expansion teams, nearly tripling its size from 10 to 26 teams. It also marked the league's national expansion, with five of those teams coming from Visayas and Mindanao. This resulted in the league dividing into the North and South Divisions, although this only affected playoff seeding and not the overall format of the season, with the playoffs itself expanding to sixteen teams, eight per division.
After a successful inaugural season, sixteen teams joined the league, its biggest expansion to date, bringing the a total of 26 teams. Metro Manila is the region with the most expansion teams at seven, those being the Makati Skyscrapers, Mandaluyong El Tigre, Manila Stars, Marikina Shoemasters, Pasay Voyagers, Pasig Pirates, and San Juan Knights. The Pampanga Lanterns joined from Central Luzon while the Bacoor City Strikers, Laguna Heroes, and Rizal Golden Coolers, joined from Calabarzon.
As part of the league's national expansion, the five remaining expansion teams came from either Visayas or Mindanao. The Cebu City Sharks from Central Visayas are the only expansion team from Visayas. The four teams from Mindanao are the Zamboanga Valientes representing the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Davao Occidental Tigers from the Davao Region, the GenSan Warriors from Soccsksargen, and the Basilan Steel from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (which later became Bangsamoro).
Mid-season, the MPBL side of the Zamboanga Valientes was relaunched and became the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines following undisclosed management issues.
Due to the much bigger size of the league, divisions were introduced to divide the teams into the North and South Divisions. Teams still play a single round-robin tournament as part of the regular season, but the playoff format was changed to accommodate the new divisions. The top eight teams from each division would advance to an expanded playoff tournament. Similar to the National Basketball Association (NBA), the champions from each division would face once another in what is dubbed the "national finals".
To ensure that the league remains balanced, a new rule was added so that teams were limited to only one Filipino-foreigner per roster, that player must also not be taller than 6'4" (193 cm). The player is classified as Filipino-foreigner if the player is a Filipino of foreign descent, regardless of being a Philippine passport holder. The new rule, however, caused some criticism from fans and players alike.[2][3]
The 26 teams played in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league for a total of 25 games. In each gameday, a series of games is played in a designated home arena, with the home team usually playing in the final game.
The playoffs were expanded from eight teams to sixteen teams in this season. The top eight teams in each division advanced to a four-round, single-elimination playoffs, playing in best-of-three series in the first three rounds, and a best-of-five series in the national finals, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher seeds of each series in the first two rounds.
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its division, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. Teams with home court advantage, the higher seeded team, are shown in italics.
In the first round, the first- and second-seeded teams host games 1 and 3 of its respective division, while the third- and fourth-seeded teams host game 2.
In the Division Semifinals, the highest seeded team hosts games 1 and 3, while the second-highest seeded team hosts game 2.
Due to Davao Occidental advancing after game 2, Batangas City instead hosted game 3.
In the Division Finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1 and 3 in its respective division, while the lower-seeded team hosts game 2.
In the MPBL finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1, 2, and 5, while the lower-seeded team hosts games 3 and 4.
Both teams finished the season 20–5, but the Davao Occidental Tigers held the homecourt advantage for the finals, as they have defeated San Juan in their regular season matchup, but the San Juan Knights eventually won the championship in 5 games.
The 2019 MPBL All-Star Game was an exhibition game played on March 2, 2019. It was the inaugural edition of the MPBL All-Star Game, which took place at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The South Division prevailed over the North Division with a score of 109–84. Jeff Viernes was declared the All-Star Game MVP.[5]
Before the game itself, multiple pre-game events were held. These include the Executives' Game, 2-Ball Challenge, Three-Point Shootout, and Slam Dunk Competition. The champions of these events are as follows:
Most of the league's individual awards made their debut this season, which were given out before game 4 of the 2019 national finals at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan.[6][7] The Finals Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year were given out at the conclusion of the series.[8]
This was the first season in which the league honored its best players with All-MPBL Teams.
Alongside the multitude of new awards, the league also began honoring its best players for each week of the regular season.
This season marked the second of three years of ABS-CBN's broadcasting rights of the league, as games were aired on S+A channel. In addition, Fox Sports Philippines started broadcasting games this season. The league also began streaming all of its games on its official Facebook page.