By REYNALD MAGALLON
Behind a stellar performance that powered Gilas Pilipinas to its first-ever semifinal appearance, naturalized player Justin Brownlee was named into the All-Star Five of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament in Riga, Latvia.
Brownlee was a man on a mission in the tournament, leading the Riga OQT in scoring, efficiency and assist departments to join an elite five that also included Bruno Cabuclo and Leo Meindl of the Paris-bound Brazil.
Also part of the mythical team were Rihard Lomazs of bridesmaid finisher Latvia and Jeremiah Hill of fellow semifinalist Cameroon.
The 36-year-old Brownlee, who already made a name for himself after powering Gilas to a first gold in the 2023 Hangzgou Asian Games after 61 years, introduced himself to the rest of the world after leading the charge for the Filipinos in a superb group stage run.
Brownlee’s inclusion to the Mythical Five earned him ton of accolades, including from Rep. Mikee Romero.
“Proud of being the ninong of Justin Brownlee,” said the 1-Pacman representative for being principal author to Brownlee’s naturalization in the Congress.
- REP. MIKEE ROMERO
Gilas defeated world No.6 Latvia, 89-80 – the first win of the country against any European team in the last 64 years – with Brownlee firing a near-triple-double of 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
He then followed it up with 28 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in Gilas rally from 20-points down to settle for a 96-94 loss versus Georgia, enough to qualify to the next round of the tournament.
While Brownlee was limited to just 15 points, eight rebounds and two assists in the 71-60 loss over Brazil in the semis, he still ended up as the tournament scoring leader with 23 points per contest.
He shared the top of the assist department with Hill with similar 6.3 assists and was in the top 3 of rebounding with 8.3 boards per game just behind NBA big men Nikola Vucevic of Montenegro and Goga Bitadze of Georgia.
With all of that, Brownlee also wound up as the most efficient player in the tournament with 27.0 efficiency, even topping tournament Most Valuable Player in Cabuclo with 22.5 efficiency through the four games.
