Cone says Brownlee’s OQT play proof he belongs in the NBA

Cone calls out on NBA for missing Brownlee under its radarjustin brownlee georgia gilas oqt

JUSTIN Brownlee has made a believer out of Tim Cone that his coach in both the PBA and national team believes he should be playing in basketball’s highest level.

After the 36-year-old Brownlee again carried Gilas Pilipinas in a narrow 96-94 loss to Georgia in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Thursday night in Riga, Latvia, the champion coach thought the NBA missed out on the player who went undrafted in 2011.

“I’ve said this before, somebody in the NBA missed out on this guy. Somebody in the NBA missed out,” Cone declared in the presser following the Philippines’ 96-94 loss to Georgia.

“They weren’t on the ball. They should’ve seen this guy,” Cone added. “He never should’ve been in the Philippines. He should be in the NBA.”

The compliment was the second one the Gilas naturalized player had gotten in the last two days.

After Brownlee exploded for 26 points in a monumental 89-80 upset of world No .6 Latvia in the team’s opening game early Thursday morning, young big man Kai Sotto referred to the Barangay Ginebra resident import as the ‘Michael Jordan of the Philippines.’

And Cone, who has been handling Brownlee for the last eight years, agreed 100 percent.

“He’s a big-moment guy. He plays huge in big moments and he’s proven that over and over again,” said the 65-year-old coach. “What he’s doing here in this tournament is no surprise whatsoever to what we’ve seen throughout his career in the Philippines.”

“He’s dominant there, he executes to a T, and he’s always engaged. When he’s aggressive, there’s just nobody, nobody better than him.”

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A product of St. John’s, Brownlee went undrafted in the NBA in 2011, eventually taking his act to the G. League, and later on to Mexico, Italy, and France.

In 2016, he finally joined Barangay Ginebra in the 2016 Governors’ Cup not as the team’s original import choice, but as a replacement for the injured Paul Harris, who hurt his right hand in the Kings’ first game of the conference.

Brownlee helped Cone win his first ever championship with the Ginebra franchise by sinking that memorable title-clinching basket at the buzzer to beat Meralco in Game 6 of that same conference finals.

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Together, coach and player would win five more titles along the way including two which they fashioned out before two record-breaking crowds at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the last of which established the biggest live audience ever to watch a PBA game at 54,589 during Game 7 of the Commissioner’s Cup against guest team Bay Area Dragons.

“That’s’ how passionate the Filipinos are about their basketball. 55,000 in a coliseum and it was amazing,” he said.