'Big moment guy’ Brownlee should be in NBA, says Cone

MANILA, Philippines – If you were to ask Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone, Justin Brownlee belongs in the NBA. 

Barangay Ginebra’s resident import and Gilas Pilipinas’ naturalized player in last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games and the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) has been tearing it up in Riga, Latvia. 

In two group phase games thus far, Brownlee has been averaging 27 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.5 assists per game. 

He led the Nationals to an improbable win over world no. 6 and hometown team Latvia on Thursday morning (Manila time,) 89-80, before helping the squad make the qualifiers’ semifinals despite the loss against Georgia less than 24 hours later, 96-94. 

After the Georgia contest, said the forward, who earlier played in the NBA D-League, “is a big moment guy.”

“He plays huge in big moments and he’s proven that over and over again. What he’s doing here in this tournament is no surprise whatsoever to what we’ve seen throughout his career in the Philippines,” Cone said. 

“He’s dominant there, he executes to a tee and he’s always engaged and when he’s aggressive, there’s nobody better than him,” he added. 

In Gilas’ qualifier opener, the hometown team was starting to chip away the lead in the fourth quarter. Brownlee, then, took over and made timely shots to keep the Latvians at bay. 

And, against Georgia, the 36-year-old fondly called by Filipinos as “Justin Noypi” kept the Philippines in the contest despite Gilas going down by 20 points in the first half. 

“Somebody in the NBA missed out on this guy. Somebody in the NBA missed out. They weren’t on the ball. They should have seen this guy. He never should have been in the Philippines. He should be in the NBA.” 

The naturalized player earlier drew praise from teammate Kai Sotto, who called him the Philippines’ Michael Jordan. Dwight Ramos also called him his best teammate ever. 

In typical fashion, Brownlee humbly said that he appreciated the compliments, and stressed he just “prides himself at being a very good teammate.” 

“A famous quote that Coach Tim always tells Ginebra guys and you know in the Gilas team is ‘one is too small a number to achieve greatness’, so I just try to go by that and try to get the best out of the team and try to put the best foot [forward] for the team,” he underscored. 

Cone continued to laud is longtime foreign reinforcement, saying he’s the best teammate he has ever seen and he makes the players around him better. 

“They play at a higher level wherever Justin goes. I used to think I was a really good coach, I had him all the time, and then he goes to other teams and he still wins everywhere he goes,” he said. 

“Obviously, it’s not me, it’s really him because he just wins everywhere. Any country he goes to they win championships. It’s amazing. It’s because he knows how to make people better around him.” 

Brownlee and the rest of Gilas will try to make it to the FIBA OQT finals as they face Brazil in the semifinal clash on Saturday.