Team History
Air21 from 2002 to present

Air21 is owned by Airfreight 2100, a subsidiary of the Lina Group of Companies, owners of the defunct Laguna Lakers of the Metropolitan Basketball Association. The franchise bought the former Tanduay team after the 2001 season.

Tanduay sold its franchise to Bert Lina, the local franchise owner of FedEx, for a reported sum of 60-75 million pesos.

Lito Alvarez, Lina’s trusted buddy, is the current team manager and team governor in the PBA Board.

In 1998, the Metropolitan Basketball Association was formed as a professional regional basketball league.

The Laguna Lakers was one of the 12 original teams in the league with Lina and FedEx owning it.

The Lakers failed to enter the finals in both the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

Laguna had Filipino-Americans Rudy Hatfield, Jeff Flowers and Cris Clay to their roster with Biboy Simon, future Air21 point guard Wynne Arboleda and Jovy Sese also playing for the Lakers.

Simon was known for his 54 point outing during an MBA game.

In 2000, the Lakers advanced to the finals of the special Intra-Conference tournament but lost to the San Juan Knights. In 2001, they also failed to advance to the National championship.

After the sale of Tanduay to FedEx, the Lakers abandoned the league to concentrate on their PBA stint.

There is absolutely no lineage between the Laguna Lakers of MBA and the current Air21 Express of PBA despite having the same owners.

After the purchase, they named the team as the FedEx Express. The Express monicker was used as a reference to their company’s role in fast-paced delivery

In the 2002 PBA Draft, the Express hold the first overall pick in the draft. Initially, the FedEx expressed its desire to draft MBA star Rommel Adducul, but his MBA team the Batangas Blades deny Adducul’s request of a release.

With this, FedEx selected St Francis of Assisi center Yancy de Ocampo as the first pick in the draft then chose De La Salle University star Renren Ritualo with the eight pick.

Jerry Codiñera was also added to the team along with a few holdovers from Tanduay.

Many amateur and commercial league champion coach Derrick Pumaren took the first head coaching job for FedEx.

He was also the last coach of the Tanduay franchise in the PBA before FedEx absorbed its franchise.

Former Tanduay forward Bong Hawkins was among those absorbed by the FedEx franchise in 2002.

But a controversy sparked Hawkins and FedEx management, as the former Perpetual Help standout wanted to have the same terms of the salary he had with Tanduay while the FedEx management wanted to negotiate a new contract.

In the end, Hawkins eventually joined Coca-Cola in 2003.

FedEx’s first-ever match was an opening game against the Coca Cola Tigers which they lost.

At that time, Ritualo was loaned the RP National pool. The Express also added Bong Alvarez in the lineup along with Jermaine Walker as one of their imports.

The Express made it to the quarterfinals of the Governors Cup but was quickly eliminated.

In the Commissioners Cup, Ritualo made his much-awaited debut with FedEx but the Express once again failed to enter past the semis.

Alvarez left the team for the Talk N’ Text Phone Pals, but acquired the services of Vergel Meneses from Barangay Ginebra.

In the All-Filipino, FedEx failed to enter the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Ritualo was named as the Rookie of the Year after the season, to spark a promising future for the team.

In 2003, the Express nabbed former MBA MVP John Ferriols in the draft as their 11th pick.

The Express finished with an impressive second place finish in the elimination round of the All-Filipino Cup.

In the quarterfinals, the Express failed to enter the semis after finishing in last place of the single-round robin quarterfinals phase.

Their performance in the All-Filipino, earned the team an early entry to the PBA Invitational tournament.

The Express placed third in the special tournament, earning the team its first trophy in the league.

In the Reinforced Conference, the Express bannered Terrence Shannon as import.

But in the opening round they were eliminated by San Miguel.

During the said tournament, Pumaren was replaced by former Lakers coach Bonnie Garcia.

During the 2004 PBA Draft, FedEx nabbed three picks in the first round with Jean Marc Pingris, Ranidel de Ocampo and Wesley Gonzales.

In the Fiesta Conference, the Express ended up in ninth place and was eliminated by the Talk N’ Text Phone Pals in the Wild-Card phase.

A coaching change also happened when legendary coach Joe Lipa replaced Garcia.

Meneses was shipped to Red Bull Barako during the off-season for Homer Se and a draft pick.

In the 2004-2005 Philippine Cup, the Express once again finished fourth in the classification phase and was eliminated early by the Alaska Aces.

Lipa resigned after the tournament and was replaced by former Indonesian national team mentor Bong Ramos. They also fielded former NBA veteran Oliver “Pig” Miller for the Fiesta Conference.

The Express finished fifth in the classification phase. It was highlighted by Renren Ritualo’s eight three pointers in a quarter during a game.

But in the Wild-Card phase, they were eliminated by Purefoods.

During the off-season, the Express renamed the team as the Air21 Express.

Ramos resigned at the end of the season, and former Laguna Lakers head coach Bo Perasol was named as his replacement.

Air21 had three picks in the first round, using those to get PBL star Anthony Washington as first pick, De La Salle University star Mark Cardona as fifth pick overall.

But both players were traded to Talk ‘N Text for Yancy de Ocampo and Patrick Fran.

The other pick went to University of the East star Niño Cañaleta.

But Air21 made a strong showing in the 2005-2006 Fiesta Conference, with bulky import Shawn Daniels taking charge.

The Express surprised everyone with several upsets against Talk ‘N Text and San Miguel to finish fourth in the classification phase.

Air21 eliminated San Miguel in the wildcard phase and upset the Phone Pals in a five-game quarterfinals affair.

But in six games, they were eliminated by Purefoods in the semi-finals. At the end of the conference, Air21 defeated the Barangay Ginebra Kings to capture third place in the tournament – its biggest finish since joining the league in 2002.

In the Philippine Cup, the Express acquired Mark Telan from the Talk N’ Text Phone Pals for John Ferriols.

On May 8, the team traded its franchise player Ritualo to the Talk ‘N Text Phone Pals for Leo Avenido and two future first round picks.

After trading Ritualo, the Express went 3-1 the rest of the classification phase to finish with a 7-9 record.

The surge saw the improvement of Air21 rookie Canaleta and Gary David, who had multiple 30-point games during the streak.

However, the Express failed to beat the Coca-Cola Tigers in a one game playoff for the third outright quarterfinals berth.

Air21 relegated to a round-robin wildcard phase. Then in the deciding game, Ginebra beat the Express, 118-114 in overtime, to eliminate them from contention.

In the off-season, the Express acquired Aries Dimaunahan and Ervin Sotto from the Ginebra as part of a huge three-team trade along with the Coca-Cola Tigers.

In the 2006 PBA Draft, Air21 selected Arwind Santos of the FEU Tamaraws and the PBL’s Magnolia Ice Cream as its second overall pick.

After a so-so performance at the Philippine Cup, the Express eked out a 7-11 record, good enough for a return trip to the wildcard phase.

Needing to sweep all the games to force a playoff for a quarterfinal berth, the Express defeated all wildcard teams. In the elimination game against Sta. Lucia, the Express came up short as they were beaten 121-118 via overtime.

Before the start of the wildcard phase, Air21 sent Yancy de Ocampo and Leo Avenido to Talk N Text for rookies Mark Andaya and Abby Santos plus future draft picks.

Air21 had talks with former Senator and the PBA’s Living Legend Robert Jaworski to either accept a capacity within the team or as head coach before prior to the start of the Fiesta Conference.

Still, the Express finished with a 10-8 record for fifth place in the standings with Shawn Daniels as import.

At one point, Air21 was 7-3 before losing five of their last eight games, before beating San Miguel in a one-game playoff for the third outright quarterfinals berth.

The Talk N’ Text Phone Pals defeated them in the quarters in a full three-game series, despite the Express’ Game 1 victory.

Air21 is also known for its “All-Filipino” Policy, or fielding in only pure blooded Filipinos on their roster.

In the recent rookie draft for the 33rd season, Air21 selected JC Intal and Doug Kramer of Ateneo in the first round along with San Beda Yousif Aljamal.

Aljamal was shipped immediately to Talk ‘N Text for future draft rights.

Marvin Cruz of UP and Rolly Masbang of UE were picked in the second round.

Mark Telan, the team’s leading rebounder last season, was traded to Coca-Cola for two future draft rights.

After losing to the wildcard round against Coca-Cola, the Air21 Express turned the Smart-Fiesta Conference as their best ever conference in the franchise history after making it to the best-of-seven finals series against the Ginebra Gin Kings.

They lost to the Gin Kings, though, in the pivotal Game 7.

The Express relied heavily on 6-foot-9 import Steve Thomas, who averaged 24 points and 19 rebounds per game, to finish the elimination round on high note at 12-6 and earn their first outright semifinals slot.

They conquered the Magnolia Beverage Masters (now San Miguel Beermen), 4-2, in Game 6 of the best-of-seven semifinals series to make it to the last round.

Guard Gary David, who did not play for almost six months due to ACL, returned to his deadly form and led the Air21 Express in that conference together with Arwind Santos, Ranidel De Ocampo, Homer Se and team captain Wynne Arboleda, among others.

The Express took Mark Borboran and Cholo Villanueva in the rookie draft, but they traded Borboran to the Alaska Aces for 6-foot-5 centre JR Quiñahan.

Air21 started with a disappointing 0-3 performance in the Philippine Cup elimination but managed to comeback in time to get an 8-6 card.

But the Express lost most of their remaining games, including the 130-129 double overtime game against San Miguel Beer, where Ranidel De Ocampo’s game-winning trey became only a game-tying two-pointer which only forced the second overtime.

Alvarez and the Express filed a protest but commissioner Sonny Barrios and the PBA board turned down their protest.

Before finishing the elimination round at 8-10, the Express made another gamble when they shipped Ranidel De Ocampo to Talk ‘N Text for Don Allado and 2012 first round pick.

But five days after the trade, the Express received swingman Cyrus Baguio and Celino Cruz from Red Bull in exchange of 2011 and 2012 first round picks.

After beating Purefoods in the first round of wildcard, the Express lost to the San Miguel Beermen in the last round of wildcard play to have an early vacation.

Lito Alvarez announced officially that team owner Bert Lina decided to replace Air21 to Burger King in the coming Fiesta Conference and returning 6-foot-6 import Shawn Daniels is expected to suit up.

Burger King is the other owned company of business mogul Bert Lina. Lito Alvarez and owner Bert Lina had decided to push through the team together with experienced coach Yeng Guiao who also called the shots for the Powerade team Pilipinas.