Justin Brownlee allayed concerns about his availability in Gilas Pilipinas’ campaign in the FIBA Asia Cup in August despite the possibility of undergoing surgery on his injured right thumb.
The resident Barangay Ginebra import shared that he would go under the knife after a couple more confirmatory tests following a dampener of an ending to the team’s title campaign in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup finals against TNT.
“Hopefully it’s not too bad. But I think… there’s a 90 percent chance I have to have surgery. I have to undergo another MRI and X-ray to see if I need the surgery,” the three-time Best Import winner said after the Kings fell short, 83-87, in overtime of the best-of-seven championship series winner-take-all Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Brownlee dislocated his thumb in Game 3 but still played through pain the rest of the series, which went the full distance.
Once he undergoes surgery, the naturalized Filipino cager expects full recovery within couple of months, leaving him enough time to prepare for Gilas’ campaign in the Asia Cup slated 5 to 17 August in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“I don’t think the downtime will be no more than a few or a couple of months, maybe,” added the six-time PBA champion.
Brownlee had a tough and physically draining couple of months.
The workhorse shouldered most of the scoring chores in Gilas’ pocket tournament in Doha last month as part of the team’s preparation for the third and final window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
Brownlee had little rest in the five road games Gilas played over a week, including back-to-back Asia Cup qualifying losses in Taiwan and New Zealand.
Back in the PBA, the 36-year-old cager carried Ginebra to a second straight finals appearance of the season for a collision course against Governors’ Cup title showdown tormentor Tropang Giga.
The Kings, however, squandered a 3-2 series lead as their championship drought extended to five conferences.
“Man, it was tough for the team. We were up 3-2 (in the series). I really felt like we could win it but TNT is a great team. They showed why they deserve to be champions,” Brownlee said.
“The loss definitely hits hard, but we have the NSD (never-say-die) spirit still. Tough loss for us, we’re now feeling down and out, but we know we’re gonna get back up.”