RONDAE Hollis-Jefferson was humble in victory and paid the ultimate compliment on Barangay Ginebra counterpart Justin Brownlee.
As if dethroning the Kings on top of the PBA Governors Cup wasn’t difficult enough, the TNT Tropang Giga talented reinforcement said matchip up with the 34-year-old Brownlee was certainly the hardest part he had to face in the best-of-seven finals.
Hollis-Jefferson did win his first championship as a pro and helped the Tropang Giga claimed the only title that had eluded the telecommunication franchise all through these years.
But the former NBA player had to do it at the expense of Brownlee, the beloved, three-time Best Import of the Kings.
RHJ on Justin Brownlee
“To be honest, guarding Justin,” said Hollis-Jefferson when asked about the hardest part of playing the Kings in the finals.
“He is a hell of an opponent to go against, very skilled, and knows how to get to his spots.”
The 28-year-old Hollis-Jefferson beat out Brownlee for the conference’s Best Import award, although that was just half of the job done.
The other half came Friday night when the Tropang Giga battled their way back from as muc as an 11-point first half deficit to complete their destiny by way of a hardearned 97-93 win and denied the Kings’ bid for a third straight Governors’ Cup championship.
A first round pick in the 2015 draft, Hollis-Jefferson finished with 29 points, including 18 in the second half when TNT began to put the pressure on the Kings, grabbed 14 rebounds, dished off six assists and two steals.
Brownlee almost matched up those numbers with his 29 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists or about 48 hours after going down with food poisoning that made him missed half of Ginebra’s 104-95 loss in Game 5.
His effort to bounce back from such an experience made Hollis-Jefferson even admire the Ginebra import.
“Give credit to Justin after being under the weather, he came out aggressive,” said the TNT reinforcement. “So we just kind of locked in like before, made his shots a little bit harder, and tried to wear him down.”
The ploy appeared to have worked as Brownlee turned the ball over in the final 43 seconds and then missed a potential game-tying basket with four seconds left to play which all but doomed Ginebra’s bid of retaining its title.
Still, Brownlee has all but earned the respect of Hollis-Jefferson.
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