By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Gilas Pilipinas’ naturalized player and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s resident import Justin Brownlee is taking his basketball talent to the Pelita Jaya club confirmed on March 21, 2024.
Pelita Jaya, one of the franchises that is participating in the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL), already announced Brownlee’s arrival on their various social media pages.
The Indonesian club will be expecting Brownlee to deliver immediately after a stellar performance during the recently concluded first window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
Brownlee steered the national team to a 2-0 outing against Hong Kong and Chinese-Taipei, averaging 21 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in those two contests.
On March 14, 2024, Brownlee already confirmed that he would be flying to Indonesia and suit up in their professional league as a reinforcement to an undisclosed basketball club.
Brownlee’s last import stint outside of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was in 2021 when he played for Al Sharjah in the UAE National Basketball League.
Now that he will be playing in Indonesia for the first time, questions were quickly raised about whether he will be leaving Ginebra when the import-laced conference kicks off later this year.
However, Brownlee and Ginebra head coach Tim Cone already bared that his commitment is still with his mother team, which is the SMC-backed franchise.
Last February 28, 2024, Cone already addressed that Brownlee would be playing overseas after the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
According to the seasoned tactician, the resident import of Ginebra is considering playing overseas after receiving multiple offers.
Cone then said that the national team and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) don’t have issues if Brownlee decides to accept the offer and they will lend their full support with whatever plans he will make.
“If he goes and play, and he’s got a contract in June, July, and August, he’ll still like Kai be able to come back and join us for the window. We’re all for him going out and staying in shape,” Cone said.
