The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel import is relishing the moment after becoming the fifth import to reach 5,000 points in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Justin Brownlee said reaching the milestone is such a special moment as he joins the elite company of Norman Black, Bobby Ray Parks, Sean Chambers and the late Lee Massey in the honor roll.
Brownlee, who first played for the Kings as a replacement import for Paul Harris in 2016, achieved the feat after scoring 38 points in their 103-80 victory over Magnolia in Game 3 of their Commissioner’s Cup best-of-five series late Sunday.
“It just really means that I’ve been playing here for a long time. I’m just enjoying it, you know,” Brownlee said.
“The five players, to be mentioned with them is truly a great achievement for me.”
Brownlee said the victory was an icing on the cake as it puts them closer to the best-of-seven finals series against the winner in the other semifinal pairing between Bay Area and San Miguel Beer.
The Dragons are leading the series, 2-1.
“To top it off with a win? It was a great win for us tonight and that was just a testament to my teammates.”
Aside from leading the Kings to five PBA titles, Brownlee is being eyed to become the country’s naturalized player in major international events, including the sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, the 32nd Southeast Asian Games and the 19th Asian Games next year.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone said he is proud of how far Brownlee had come.
“The thing that strikes me with Justin is that he is a completely different player now than when he first came here. We are looking at some old videos of him and he didn’t look like what he is now,” said Cone, who has a penchant for keeping a resident import like Chambers with Alaska and Marqus Blakely with Magnolia.
“He has continually worked on his game and the PBA forced him to continually work on his game. He’s now a better ball handler, he’s a better dribbler and he’s really good at the pull up jumper.”
