BARANGAY Ginebra’s ageless reinforcement Justin Brownlee is the favorite to win the Best Import award, being the lone survivor among the original batch of foreign players in the ongoing PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup.
The 6-foot-4 Brownlee averaged 29.7 points through the semifinal round where he helped Ginebra upend Rain or Shine in six games en route to steering the league’s most popular squad to a return trip to the conference finals.
At 37, the three-time Best Import winner continues to wow Ginebra fans.
Last Wednesday, Brownlee showed he is still at the top of his game after knocking down the game-winning jumper to lift Ginebra to thrilling 102-100 win over TNT for an early 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven championship series.
The concurrent Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player finished with 23 points, four rebounds and eight assists in the series opener.
The three other Best Import candidates include Jaylen Johnson of Rain or Shine, Chris McCullough of TNT and Patrick Gardner of Meralco.
McCullough and Gardner were last-minute replacements for Bol Bol and Marvin Jones, the two original imports tapped by TNT and Meralco, respectively.
Based on the PBA rule on imports, foreign reinforcements whose teams make the Final Four qualify automatically for the Best Import award as long as they are still actively playing for their respective squads.
Bol, the 7-foot-3 NBA veteran would have been a cinch to win the awards for reinforcements, but a full tear on his left Achilles in Game 2 of their semis duel versus Meralco put an end to his stint with TNT.
The son of the late NBA big man Manute Bol, however, led TNT to a king-sized upset, eliminating top seed NLEX by beating the Road Warriors twice in the quarterfinal round to reach the semis.
