YOUTH is definitely served with the likes of Mike Philips, Juan Gomez De Liano, and Justin Baltazar coming on board for Gilas Pilipinas for the first time.
And that left naturalized player Justin Brownlee feeling a bit too old playing alongside the new boys of the national team.
At 38, Justin Noypi now stands as the ‘kuya’ of the entire Gilas team following the retirement of 39-year-old Japeth Aguilar from national team duties last year.
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“I’m not trying to think about it,” said a smiling Brownlee, when asked about the age gap.
‘But I have to admit, maybe just a little bit.”
Philips is 24, Gomez De Liano is 26, and Baltazar 29, giving Gilas added energy moving forward especially in its bid to make it back to the Olympics by 2028.
Both Philips and Baltazar were taken in as injuries hounded young bigs Kai Sotto and Quentin Millora-Brown.
Gomez De Liano on the other hand, was a last-minute replacement for the injured Scottie Thompson.
Of the current 12-man roster to the coming third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers, nine-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo is the next oldest to Brownlee at 36 followed by Meralco guard Chris Newsome at 35 and Troy Rosario at 34.
The rest are within the 25-27 brackets including Dwight Ramos at 27, AJ Edu and RJ Abarrientos at 26, and Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao at 25.
Brownlee, who was naturalized at 34 years old, is all in on the injection of young blood to the Gilas roster.
“These guys are young and youthful, and they bring a lot of energy on and off the court,” he said.
And being the most senior of them all, all Brownlee could do is just to keep on with the flow.
“I just try to keep up with them,” said the resident import of Barangay Ginebra.
The entire Gilas Pilipinas squad left for Brisbane, Australia on Tuesday afternoon for a four-day training camp prior to its campaign in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
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