The 2023 MPBL season was the fifth season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) and the second as a professional league. The regular season began on March 11, 2023 and was originally scheduled to end on September 30, 2023, but got postponed to October 3, 2023. The playoffs began on October 6, 2023 and ended on December 2, 2023, when the Pampanga Giant Lanterns defeated the Bacoor City Strikers in three games in the 2023 MPBL finals.[1] This season featured 29 teams, which included two expansion teams: the Negros Muscovados and the Quezon Huskers.
The opening ceremonies took place at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena, Quezon. The 2023 MPBL All-Star Game was held at Bataan People's Center in Balanga, Bataan, where the North Division beat the South Division for the first time with a score of 99–91.
The league took two breaks during the regular season, during Holy Week and during the Philippines' co-hosting of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.[2]
OKBet continued to be the league's title sponsor throughout the regular season.[3]
This season featured two new expansion teams. After competing in the 2021 Invitational, the Negros Muscovados marked their full-time arrival this season. The Quezon Huskers also made their league debut, giving every province in the Calabarzon region at least one team. Five teams also made their return to the league, which includes the Bicol Volcanoes, Bulacan Kuyas, Iloilo United Royals, Parañaque Patriots and Pasay Voyagers. This increased the total number of teams from 22 to 29.[2]
Every returning team is allocated to its previous division, with both Negros and Quezon being placed in the South Division. The Rizal Golden Coolers were realigned back to the North Division.
This season was preceded by the 2023 MPBL Preseason Invitational, which used a similar format to the 2021 Invitational, but downsized because of the smaller eight-team pool. The tournament ran for one week from February 21–27, 2023 at the Lagao Gymnasium in General Santos, the home arena of the GenSan Warriors.[2]
The tournament was won by the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines after beating the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards in the final game with a score of 88–80, with Dexter Maiquez winning MVP honors.[4]
The opening ceremony was held on March 11, 2023 at Quezon Convention Center in Lucena, Quezon. Rapper Andrew E. and singer Marcelito Pomoy were both among the performers to kick off the regular season. Like previous seasons, a muse contest followed wherein some teams took part in.
The first game was between the Rizal Golden Coolers and the Bataan Risers, while the first home game featured the two expansion teams this season, with the Quezon Huskers hosting the Negros Muscovados.
The 29 teams play in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league for a total of 28 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 top eight teams in each division will advance 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.
Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
The 2023 MPBL playoffs began on October 6, 2023.
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 homecourt advantage, the higher-seeded team, are shown in italics.
First Round
Division Semifinals
Division Finals
MPBL finals
The 2023 MPBL All-Star Game, the league's fourth overall, took place on September 16, 2023 at the Bataan People's Center in Balanga, Bataan, the home arena of the Bataan Risers. The North Division finally won against the South Division after three seasons, with a score of 99–91, with All-Star MVP honors going to Justine Baltazar.
Most of the league's individual awards were given out on November 28, 2023 before game 2 of the National Finals series at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.[9] The Finals Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year were awarded at the conclusion of the national finals on December 2, 2023 at Strike Gymnasium in Bacoor, Cavite.[10]
Two new awards were introduced this season, those being the Most Improved Player and the Impact Player of the Year.
This is the first season in which the league awarded the Player of the Week award during the playoffs, during which it is called the Playoffs Performer of the Week. It is only given out during the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The league's youth-oriented counterpart, the Junior MPBL, began its inaugural 2023 season on July 9, 2023 at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.[13] The following tournaments took place during the 2023 professional season.
This season marked the second year of Cignal TV's ongoing television broadcast rights with the league. Carrying over from the previous season, games were also broadcast on One PH and One Sports+, the latter was only used for the Invitational tournament. Since April 13, Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV) began broadcasting all games.
This season saw an expansion of the league's streaming portfolio. Cignal's Pilipinas Live began streaming games in June 2023, while Bola.TV began in August 2023. The league continued to broadcast its games on Facebook, YouTube, and Cignal Play.
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