It’s weird to see brothers slug it out for a prize, knowing that they have just won one together a couple of months ago.
Justin Brownlee admits that. It’s really weird for him to face Renaldo Balkman for the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown, for they have won an ASEAN Basketball League championship together for San Miguel Alab Pilipinas.
“I guess it’s a little weird from being teammates a couple months ago, he’s on the other side now. He’s my brother for life,” said Brownlee.
“Just a couple of months ago, me and him was like Batman and Robin.”
But then, they have to exercise professionalism. They’re on different sides now — Brownlee with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, Balkman with the San Miguel Beermen — and they have to do what is expected from them.
“I know it’s gonna be a dogfight out there when we go in between those four lines [of the court],” said Balkman.
“We still gotta go out there and do what we’re supposed to do as a team. Whatever we need to do, whatever Coach Leo [Austria] tells us is the game plan, we gotta execute it and we gotta play hard,” he added.
It would be exciting, to say the least, how the two will fare in the best-of-seven series. Both of them have their own motivation: Balkman is eager to help SMB defend the throne, while Brownlee wants the Barangay to halt those plans.
“I’ll tell him give it his all and I will do the same,” Brownlee said.
But at the end of the day, whoever emerges triumphant in this much-anticipated clash, all will still be well for Balkman and Brownlee, who formed a dreaded B-and-B tandem in the ABL that caused headaches for opponents.
“At the end of the day, win, lose, or draw, whoever wins we’ll still gonna be friends, brothers — whatever you’re gonna call ’em — on and off the court,” Balkman declared.
