JUSTIN Brownlee is back in town but it wouldn’t be for long as he heads back to Jakarta on Sunday intime for the resumption of his campaign in Indonesia.
Brownlee took advantage of the break of the action in the Indonesia Basketball League to return to Manila and watch Barangay Ginebra in its win over Blackwater in the PBA last Friday.
The Barangay Ginebra resident import is also coming off a stint in the Basketball Champions League Asia qualifiers in Mongolia where Pelita Jaya made it to the second round.
Brownlee said he is enjoying his time in Indonesia, an opportunity for him to get into game shape with the PBA in its all-Filipino tournament and Gilas Pilipinas' campaign in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament in July still months away.
“It’s great. It’s good. I’m just trying to enjoy as much as I can. Fortunately, we’ve been winning games and having fun, playing basketball,” said Brownlee.
Pelita Jaya holds an 8-1 win-loss record with a team that also has former PBA imports in KJ McDaniels and Thomas Robinson, as well as Indonesia national team standout Brandon Jawato.
Brownlee said he has adjusted to the team’s style of basketball in the short time that he has played in Jakarta.
“They are great. I’ve got acclimated with the offense playing with KJ and T-Rob, Jawato, all those guys, they are very talented. It’s been fun. It’s very enjoyable. We’ve been winning games, that’s the most important thing. Having a new setting, bonding with the team, everything is good,” said Brownlee.
Despite their solid showing in the league, Brownlee played down the notion that he has been the reason for their success, sayingPelita Jaya has been doing well since the start of the season.
Nevertheless, Brownlee hopes the winning trend leads to another championship in a different setting before he resumes his Gilas duties.
“I hope it stays that way. The team, actually, they’ve been doing well even before I came so I definitely can’t take a lot of the credit for that. But moving forward, we just keep winning, keep getting better and see how it goes.”
“Maybe a championship would come out of this,” said Brownlee.
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