This was the first import-laced tournament held by the league since the 2019 PBA Governors' Cup.
For the first two weeks of the tournament, the league returned to the Ynares Sports Arenawith no audience in the venue. Quezon City then gave the permission for sports events to be held there with spectators; the PBA is expected to play at the Araneta Coliseum for the rest of the tournament starting December 15.[2]
On January 3, 2022, the league postponed its scheduled games from January 5 to 9 after Metro Manila was put on Alert Level 3 due to the rising COVID-19 cases.[3] The tournament was subsequently postponed indefinitely on January 6.[4] The tournament resumed on February 11 after the alert level in Metro Manila was downgraded to Alert Level 2.[5] The games were temporarily moved to the Ynares Center from February 23 to 27 as the Araneta Coliseum was used for the February window of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification.
Format
The following format will be observed for the duration of the conference:[6]
Single round-robin eliminations; 11 games per team; Teams are then seeded by basis on win–loss records.
Top eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals. In case of tie, playoff games will be held only for the #8 seed.
Source: PBA.ph Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) if two teams are tied, head-to-head record; if three or more teams are tied, head-to-head goal average (quotient), if tied for 8th, one-game playoff; 3) overall quotient 4) coin toss[7] Notes:
^ abcHead-to-head quotient: TNT 1.07, Meralco 0.99, San Miguel 0.95
Source: PBA.ph results, PBA.ph schedule Legend: Blue = left column team win; Red = top row team win. Matches with lighter background shading were decided after overtime.
All match-ups have the higher-seeded team having the twice-to-beat advantage, where they have to be beaten twice, and their opponents just once, to advance.
The following is the list of imports, which had played for their respective teams at least once, with the returning imports in italics. Highlighted are the imports who stayed with their respective teams for the whole conference.
