RILEY Grisgby would rather have won more games for Barangay Ginebra during his brief stint, but that doesn’t change the fact that he enjoyed his time with the country’s most popular team.
Grigsby has concluded his stint with the Gin Kings with Justin Brownlee expected to be healthy for the final stretch of the PBA 50th Season Governors’ Cup.
He put in the numbers for the Gin Kings where he averaged 26.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks.
READ: Grigsby stays 'on call' even with Brownlee's expected return
Grigsby admitted he would have preferred to have helped the team pick up more wins before Brownlee takes over for the second half of the conference.
Barangay Ginebra was 2-4 (win-loss record) with Grigsby as their import, a reflection that the team was still learning to play with Grigsby as their import.
“I came in here knowing that I was coming into one of the best, historic organizations,” Grigsby said.
“All I wanted to do was be professional, come in every day, handle my business, be a good teammate, be a good person, just out to the fans, and all that kinds of stuff. And obviously, just compete on the basketball floor. I think I did all that," he added.
“Obviously, the wins didn’t show up, but that’s going to happen when you come to a new team and try to learn everyone and stuff like that. There’s going to be some rough times, but I appreciate my time here. It’s been great."
The 26-year-old Grigsby had an outstanding debut where he scored 42 points and 13 rebounds against Phoenix Super LPG, but the lack of local support led to a loss to the Fuelmasters, 81-78.
Overall, Grigsby, who once played for the Santa Cruz Warriors and the Sioux Falls Skyforces in the G League, was able to stay consistent throughout his six-game stint, but the wins were hard to come by.
The Gin Kings slipped to their second consecutive loss before heading to the break after a 97-88 defeat over Meralco last August 14, despite Grigsby contributing 34 points and 10 rebounds.
Still, Grigsby was thankful to the coaches and his teammates for being patient in teaching him the offensive and defensive patterns of the team, most notably the triangle offense that the Gin Kings are running.
“I feel like the coaching staff and the team have been great for me. Coming in, learning the new system, triangle, there’s a lot of little things that you’ve got to learn. Obviously, it’s hard in that short span of time," he said.
“They’ve been great. Anything I needed, anything I’ve been confused or not knowing what’s going on, my teammates stepped in, coach Tim stepped in, all the other coaches stepped in to help me out. I feel like they’ve been great. They’ve all been supportive. That’s all I can ask."
There is still a slight chance that Grigsby would be back if Brownlee becomes unfit to return after his Gilas Pilipinas commitments in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers and the 20th Asian Games.
If he gets an opportunity to be back, Grigsby believes the team will be able to play a lot better with the benefit of more time to learn the system.
“Obviously, when you got a new import, especially in a system like this, it's going to take some time to get that fluidity and learn your teammates… If you hear it for long enough and you get that cohesiveness from the team, the sky’s the limit. There's going to be success at some point."
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