As expected, Scottie Thompson and Justin Brownlee of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel emerged as best players after bagging individual awards in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
Thompson and Brownlee took center stage and received the Best Player of the Conference and Best Imports awards, respectively, prior to Game 4 of their best-of-seven finals series against Bay Area Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Thompson, the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player, was the runaway winner, beating Robert Bolick of NorthPort, CJ Perez of San Miguel Beer, Don Trollano of NLEX and teammate Jamie Malonzo.
This is the second BPC award won by Thompson, who also previously win the plum in last season’s Governors’ Cup.
The two-time Finals MVP garnered 917 total points, winning the polls from the media, the player’s votes, and the statistics
Malonzo, acquired by the Gin Kings along with Jeremiah Gray in separate trades before the start of the tournament, placed second with 673 while Bolick, the tournament’s top local scorer averaging over 21 points per game, ended up third with 558.
Brownlee collected his third Best Import award, but his latest feat didn’t come as a surprise as he beat Nick Rakocevic of Magnolia and Devon Scott of San Miguel Beer.
One of the shortest imports in the tournament that has a 6-foot-10 height limit, Brownlee remained as the gold standard among reinforcements and he had proven that by leading the Kings to another finals run.
Brownlee came up with a total of 1,289 votes, more than 300 votes from his closest pursuer, Rakocevic, who had 940.
The resident import, who is expected to reinforce the Philippine men’s basketball team in the sixth and final window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers in next month, is looking to cap his campaign by winning another championship for Ginebra, which will put him in a tie with Sean Chambers as imports with the most number of PBA titles at six.
