Teams duking it out in the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup semifinals will get the honor of being the first to sport the league’s golden anniversary logo.

The Asia’s first play-for-pay cage league kicked off its celebration of its 50th year of inception by unveiling a new all-gold logo Monday at the TV5 Launchpad led by PBA commissioner Willie Marcial and PBA board of governors chairman Ricky Vargas.

Mid-season tournament semifinalists Rain or Shine, TNT Tropang Giga, Barangay Ginebra and NorthPort will have in their game jerseys patches of the 50th anniversary logo -- which displays an all-gold “PBA50” lettering and a black silhouette of a dribbling player in the middle -- at the start of their respective best-of-seven series on 26 February at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“We will introduce our new logo starting in the semifinals. You’ll notice in the jerseys of players a patch of the new logo,” Marcial said.

“Not just the players but also the referees, league officials and staff will have the logos in their uniforms. We want the fans to know that we are starting the celebration (of PBA’s 50th anniversary). It’s like a two-year celebration since we’re starting it this 49th season all the way to the end of the 50th year of the PBA.”

Also present in the logo unveiling was PBA legend Allan Caidic, representing the selection panel for the additional 10 players that will be elevated in the list of the league’s 50 Greatest Players -- one of the much-anticipated feature of the league’s celebration of half a century of Philippine professional basketball excellence.

“It’s exciting because we have been tapped as part of the selection committee. Rest assured that the PBA Legends are in full support of the PBA’s project for the league’s 50th anniversary. Of course, this is where we started and got known and we owe a lot to this league,” said Caidic, part of the 10-man selection panel.

The 10 additional players will be formally inducted during the PBA anniversary celebration on 9 April tentatively scheduled to be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.