started playing under the Magnolia Chicken brand name. Purefoods (1988–2010) Purefoods Hotdogs (1988–1990) As part of the deal to join the league, Purefoods was allowed to take some amateur players from the PABL and the national team. Purefoods then drafted Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa, Jerry Codiñera, Glenn Capacio and the number one overall pick of the rookie draft that year; Jack Tanuan. They also added Al Solis and Totoy Marquez from Shell. However, there was a surrounding controversy on the case of Patrimonio, as his PABL team Swift denied Patrimonio's release. The issue was settled before the All-Filipino Conference though, and Patrimonio joined the team. Purefoods also took the core of the defunct Tanduay squad, namely, Ramon Fernandez, who was designated playing-coach, Freddie Hubalde, Padim Israel, Willie Generalao, Victor Sanchez, JB Yango and Onchie dela Cruz. David Thirdkill, who led Tanduay to the previous year's Open Conference championship and was named Best Import of the conference, was hired as Purefoods' reinforcement for the Open Conference this time. In their first conference, Purefoods made a historic run to the Finals against the Norman Black-led San Miguel Beermen in seven games. In the next conference, Cris Calilan replaced Fernandez as head coach after the first round of the eliminations. They met crowd favorite Añejo Rhum 65 in the Finals. Purefoods lost the series 3–1 against a veteran and rugged team of playing coach Robert Jaworski. Controversy arose during the series as Fernandez was ordered to be benched by then-Purefoods Corporation president Rene Buhain amid rumors of game-fixing. This issue led to Fernandez's transfer to San Miguel for Abet Guidaben late in the season. Lastimosa was named as the 1988 Rookie of the Year at the end of the season. In 1989, Purefoods lost in six games to San Miguel in the All-Filipino Conference. An incident also happened during the second round of the eliminations of that conference when Samboy Lim nearly suffered a career-ending injury when he drove over Lastimosa causing him to fall off-balance and hit head first on the parquet floor. This happened on July 18, 1989, with Purefoods winning 125–115. There was a huge public outcry after that game with many fans decrying Lastimosa's actions as dirty. In the season-ending 1990 Reinforced Conference, Purefoods took on Alaska Air Force for the title. This conference featured two imports and Purefoods tapped the services of Daren Queenan and Rob Rose, who