Justin Brownlee moved closer to yet another career milestone – but saw that eclipsed by Ginebra’s crushing loss to Magnolia on Sunday night.
The Barangay’s resident import is just two points away from overtaking the late Lew Massey at no. 4 in the league’s all-time scoring list among imports after finishing with 22 points in their 88-118 defeat.
The three-time Best Import is currently fifth (5,385 points) on the list topped by incumbent Meralco head coach Norman Black with 11,329.
Brownlee reiterated that he isn’t out to play for individual success, but nonetheless feels honored to be named among the PBA’s greatest.
“I don’t play for just personal accolades but being mentioned … for the scoring and things like that, passing people up is a great accomplishment for myself,” he said moments after the match at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“Especially knowing the history of the PBA. and the imports that played here. It’s great to keep climbing that ladder,” added Brownlee, who recently tied Sean Chambers for the most number of PBA titles among imports with six.
Then again, Brownlee is and will always be putting more premium on garnering wins, something that he wanted to have against Magnolia but didn’t. And that, unfortunately, led to their first loss after a 3-0 start into the Governors’ CUp.
But the 34-year-old chooses to look at the silver lining of the defeat, saying that it should serve as a reminder for the entire Kings that such a thing would happen if they ‘come out and play mediocre.’
“As for us, we’re coming off a championship, had a lot of success, starting off 3-0. This loss can be positive. I like to take the positive out of negative things,” said Brownlee. “Hopefully we can gather ourselves from this loss and learn a lot and move forward and just understand that if we come out and play mediocre.
“If we’re not mentally focused in the game this could happen not only against Magnolia but against a lot of teams. Just next game, be mentally ready and make sure we’re ready to play all out.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
