MANILA, Philippines — Tim Cone once and for all puts to rest any reports that Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Justin Brownlee has a nagging injury that contributed to his on-and-off performance during the recent PBA Governors’ Cup Finals, which TNT won for the second straight year.
The American mentor said with over a week of physical and mental rest following a grueling PBA Governors’ Cup campaign that culminated in a runner-up finish, he expects Brownlee to be “highly motivated” once the national team starts training camp this Friday.
“You know the key is he just needed time to rest his body and his mind. We know eight, nine days doesn’t seem a lot of time. It’s not, but I think for Justin, it’s enough (time to recover),” Cone told media men during the Gilas press conference on Wednesday held at the Cignal Customer Experience Center Studio, Launchpad Bldg. in Mandaluyong City.
“I know him well for the last six or seven years. I see how he recovers, and I think he’ll be fine. He’s not exactly happy with the way he played, and I’m not happy with how we played, and I’m not happy with how I coached because I got in a lot of uncomfortable situations in that Finals that was forced on me because of the way TNT was playing,” he explained.
“The lack of personnel we had due to some personnel injuries we head, I’m motivated to bounce, back, and even more so, Justin’s motivated to bounce back.”
The 36-year-old Brownlee averaged 19.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists in a championship series that also saw him held down to a PBA career-low eight points on 3-of-13 shooting in Game 5 where Ginebra got blown off the court by 27 points.
Cone said the Finals is an altogether different animal, especially since their preparation this time involves the national team, which will have regional powerhouse New Zealand as its first opponent in the second window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers on November 21.
Ranked 22nd in the world, Cone knows Gilas will have its hands full against New Zealand when they clash at the Mall of Asia Arena.
But the American mentor said he’s excited to see Brownlee come out swinging after getting the much-needed rest.
“When I have a motivated Justin, watch out,” said the PBA’s all-time winning coach, best remembered for steering the Philippines to its first Asian Games gold medal last year, signaling an end to the country’s 62-year basketball title drought.
“I don’t wanna give New Zealand (added motivation)… (but) they’re gonna be reading everything you guys say on the press. I don’t want to motivate them too much, but bottomline is, Justin’s gonna be ready to play,” he stressed.
“It’ doesn’t mean he’s gonna get big numbers but it means he’s gonna be locked in on what we do, get his teammates involved, and play the game right, which he does 99 percent of the time,” added Cone.
After New Zealand, Gilas faces Hong Kong on November 24, also at the famed Pasay City sports venue.
Cone also clarified that the inclusion of naturalized player Ange Kouame doesn’t mean he’ll be taking the spot of the 6-foot-4 Brownlee.
“He (Kouame) will most likely not be in the line-up because we expect Justin to play in both games,” shared Cone.
However, the Gilas mentor said the 6-foot-11 Kouame’s inclusion in the 15-man pool is critical, especially if anything untoward happens on Brownlee.
“We can only play one naturalized player at a time, so the only person he could play in place of is Justin Brownlee. I think it’s really important that because of that, something God forbid, knock on wood happens to Justin, then we’ll be able to bringing him in,” Cone said.
“He knows our system, he knows what ask of him, and he will be part of the preparation. It’s important for him to be part of the program as backup, and as we wait for Bennie Boatwright to get to the process of the immigration and whatever he needs to be doing,” he added.
