JUSTIN Brownlee hardly showed the effects of the surgery done on his previously dislocated thumb the way he played in Gilas Pilipinas' friendly with the Macau Black Bears.
The prolific naturalized player got into rhythm in the second half and presided over a mighty comeback by the host for a 103-98 win before a mesmerized Monday crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Brownlee connected 5-of-7 from the three-point zone to finish with a game-high 32 points in his first game back in the country after going under the knife last April in the US to repair his torn ulnar collateral ligament.
"It's always a great feeling, and I'm just happy to get back with the team (Gilas) and doing what I love to do," he said.
The 37-year-old Brownlee dislocated his right thumb during the Commissioner's Cup finals between Barangay Ginebra and eventual champion TNT.
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But the resident import of Ginebra obviously didn't lose a beat as shown in his game against the Black Bears, which also saw him add 15 rebounds and five assists while shooting an efficient 10-of-14 from the field.
That should augurs well to Gilas Pilipinas' coming campaign in the FIBA Asia Cup, where the Filipinos are eyeing to surpass the quarterfinals stint they had during the 2021 edition of the meet in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Brownlee though, knows it's going to be a huge task for the team, which is in Group D together with New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, and Iraq.
"It's an incredible challenge, you know. You got some really good teams out there," he said of the competition in the August 5-17 showcase. "Now I think we kind of have put Asia on notice as far as saying that we're here and we really want to be able to compete. The Philippines is growing and I think, it's got to a point where, like coach Tim said earlier, we want to be able to dominate Asian basketball."
He added, "I think with the team that we have, I think that's very possible to do. It's just going to take us an extremely amount of hard work and dedication from everybody to buy in to that. With everybody doing that, I think it's a bright future to be honest for the Gilas program." (RG)
