Gilas Pilipinas Men will go all-Filipino in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers’ fourth window on August 28 and 30 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Long-time naturalized player Justin Brownlee will be unavailable for the upcoming window, Philippine men’s national basketball team head coach Tim Cone confirmed on Monday during Gilas’ press conference.
“The big elephant in the room right now is Justin is not here, and he’ll most likely not play, so we’ll be going without Justin,” said Cone.
“That’s a big adjustment, but again, with Kai here and we got June Mar, AJ… We’ll have the requisite size to be successful in this window.”
The Nationals will face Jordan on August 28 before taking on Iran on August 30 as they begin their Group E campaign, with Cone admitting that “the margin of error has really dissipated for us.”
Bennie Boatwright’s naturalization process has yet to be completed, while Angelo Kouame remains under contract in France, making the Philippines’ lineup for the coming window all-Filipino.
(C) FIBA
Brownlee also missed the Philippines’ game against Australia on July 6 in the third window due to a hamstring strain and peroneal tendinopathy in his right leg, as well as left knee swelling and cartilage defects.
“At this point, Justin doesn’t feel like that he’s really healthy enough to contribute and whether that’s really injury or health… He was having issues obviously, as we know from the last window,” shared Cone.
“He wasn’t able to play against Australia, and we were hoping that those issues will be resolved by the time we play here. But as it turned out, he’s telling us that he’s just not healthy enough.”
Gilas enters the second round with a 2-4 record following a four-game losing skid.
Kai Sotto, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, AJ Edu, and the rest of the Nationals will look to fill the void left by Brownlee as Gilas fights to keep its World Cup qualification hopes alive.
Also part of the 15-man pool are CJ Perez, Justine Baltazar, RJ Abarrientos, Troy Rosario, Justin Arana, Juan Gomez de Liaño, Chris Newsome, and Scottie Thompson. June Mar Fajardo also set aside his national team retirement for this window due to the need for big men, with Quentin Millora-Brown and Mike Phillips also unavailable.
“We’re 15 at this point. We still need to cut down to 12, and we’ll do that until the night before during the coaching meeting,” said Cone.
