Brownlee rejoining Gilas soon

Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Justin Brownlee is set to return to the Philippines on Sunday in time for the preparation for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament next month in Riga, Latvia.

No less than Gilas head coach Tim Cone confirmed the development to DAILY TRIBUNE on Thursday at the sidelines of the 42nd Weekly Membership Meeting of the Rotary Club of Manila at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City.

Brownlee recently had a double-double game of 21 points and 13 rebounds to guide the Indonesian club to a 98-91 win over Korean Basketball League champion Busan KCC Egis in the last game of the group stage of the Basketball Champions League Asia (BCL Asia) in Riyadh.

“Yeah, he’ll be here. He’s arriving on the 16th from Indonesia,” Cone said.

The six-time Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) champion has not skipped a beat due to him being one of the key players for Pelita Jaya in the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) and in the BCL Asia.

Brownlee averaged 13.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.9 assists in 10 with last year’s IBL finalist in 10 games in the league.

‘Yeah, he’ll be here. He’s arriving on the 16th from Indonesia.’

In the BCL Asia, he averaged 17.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists in eight games for Pelita Jaya, which is currently at second place in the IBL with an 18-2 win-loss record.

However, the Indonesian club failed to reach the semifinal after losing in a tiebreaker involving Shahrdary Gorgan of Iran and Japan B.League champion Hiroshima Dragonflies in Group A.

With Brownlee going back to the country for national team duties, he will miss the rest of Pelita Jaya’s regular season and is expected to rejoin the club sometime in July for the first round of the IBL playoffs.

Cone is confident that the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel resident import will be fit and ready for war when Gilas begins its training camp at the Inspire Academy in Laguna on 21 June.

“He’s signed a contract with them and he’s being paid by them so he has to give his best for them at that time. So that’s out of our control. Once he comes over here, then he’s back into our control,” Cone said.