Brownlee eyeing Asian domination

Justin Brownlee vows to be ready for the challenge when he reinforces Gilas Pilipinas in the FIBA Asia Cup that will start on Tuesday night (Manila time) at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The 37-year-old naturalized player said they will be at their best when they tip off their campaign against dangerous Chinese Taipei past midnight on Wednesday.

Brownlee is coming off a long break after dislocated his thumb during the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup finals last March.

But he had already recovered and is more than ready to power the Filipinos in their quest for their first ever Asia Cup title since 1985.

“Man, it’s an incredible challenge, of course. You know, we got some really good teams out there, and now I think that we’ve kind of put Asia on notice as far as, like, we’re here,” Brownlee said.

“The Philippines is growing, and I think it’s got to a point where, like Coach Tim (Cone) was telling, we wanna be able to dominate Asia in basketball. With the team we have, I think that’s very possible to do.”

Gilas enjoys tremendous success since Brownlee and head coach Tim Cone took over.

They clinched the gold medal in the 19th Asian Games in China in 2023 to end a 61-year title drought. They also made it t the semifinal of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia and won all of their games in the first two windows of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers last year.

Unfortunately for them, 7-foot-3 slotman Kai Sotto went down with a knee injury, prompting the Filipinos to suffer back to back losses to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand in the third and final window last February.

Now, Brownlee aims to bring back his magic when the Filipinos tangle with familiar foes like Chinese Taipei, New Zealand and Iraq in the pool play.

“It’s just going to take an extreme amount of hard work and dedication to tell everybody to buy in,” Brownlee said, anticipating yet another strong finish from the national squad.

“I think if everybody’s doing that, I see a bright future for the Gilas program.”