Author: Martin Dale D. Bolima
Photo Credit: PBA
With a deadeye shooter like Justin Brownlee who can shoot all the way out from 27 feet, a.k.a the four-point line in the PBA, it was just a matter of time before Barangay Ginebra San Miguel would benefit from that additional point.
Indeed, the crowd darlings have benefitted from that newly instituted four-point line, with Brownlee, in particular, using it to great effect in Ginebra’s last two games—in the clincher against the Meralco Bolts in the quarters and in Game 1 versus the San Miguel Beermen in their semis opener.
Against Meralco, Brownlee sandwiched a Maverick Ahanmisi three with a pair of four-pointers to pull Ginebra to within 89-87 after trailing 85-77 at the midway point of the fourth quarter. Then, against San Miguel, JB put on a four-point shooting clinic, canning five from way deep—including three in the third, when the Barangay outscored the Beermen 34-20 to blow the game open.
Even so, Ginebra coach Tim Cone has not changed his mind about the PBA’s four-point innovation. He still does not like it because he thinks it is taking away from the game.
“Just Because It Favors Our Team Having Justin Around Doesn’t Mean I’m a Fan of the Four-Point Line,”
Cone told reporters after Ginebra drew first blood in its semis showdown against the San Miguel Beermen. “I just believe the game has evolved into shooting, taking quick shots, taking four-pointers. You see guys practicing, all they do is shoot threes, shoot fours, and I think the game is a lot more than that. But we’re evolving into this idea that it’ll be a three- or four-point shooting game. There’s so much more to the game; there’s cutting, there’s screening, the defensive side, the ability to pass… Those things are really a big part of the game.”
This infatuation with the long bomb—the three and now the four, has snowballed into the younger generation of players, according to Cone, and it is not necessarily a good thing.
“With the four-point shot, it’s just my personal opinion, I think we’re putting pressure on young kids to come out and just shoot, learn to shoot, and [think] that’s good enough. I think the game is more than that, and it’s why I don’t agree with it,” explained the PBA’s all-time winningest coach.
But, at the moment, Cone will take the good with the bad—especially if the four-point shot continues to help Ginebra win games.
