Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, RJ Abarrientos, and Troy Rosario will be part of the Gilas Pilipinas squad competing in the third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers this July.
That means JB, Thompson, Abarrientos, and Rosario will have little time to savor the championship they helped Ginebra win on Wednesday, thanks to a come-from-behind 88-76 victory over the TNT Tropang 5G in Game 7 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Some Rest for the Weary
But, at the very least, they will get some rest before they plunge back into practice for Gilas. For how long, you ask?
Two weeks? Ten days? One week?
No. Try four days. Yes, four days!
“Ginebra players are taking a break still until the 22nd, so they will not pick up a basketball,” Gilas and Ginebra coach Tim Cone said in a podcast for the SEAG Network on Thursday.
Brownlee, though, looks ready to jump in and was, according to Cone, volunteering to come by Gilas practice earlier than intended.
“Justin was telling me last night, ‘I can come by and talk and say hello and get up a few shots.’ I said, ‘Absolutely not, Justin. You are not supposed to do anything. You stay in bed for the next five days. Don’t get out…,’” Cone said of Brownlee, who is coming off an epic Finals where he averaged 36.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.3 steals and played over 40 minutes every game—all on a tweaked hamstring.
Brownlee and Company Are in for a Frenetic Few Weeks
All four of Brownlee, Thompson, Abarrientos, and Rosario are coming off a grueling seven-game series against TNT and deserve a lot of rest. But that’s even more true for JB and Thompson, who both nursed hamstring injuries in the Finals yet continued to play heavy minutes. Kabayan, in particular, carried a Herculean burden for Ginebra, while Thompson hobbled through the last three games and was even hit square in the face to start Game 7.
That being said, the most they can get is four days’ worth of rest as Gilas is on a very tight schedule. According to Cone, Gilas will be leaving for Brisbane on the 23rd to get acclimated to Australia’s cold weather this time of year. A four-day camp will follow, after which the national team will play a couple of friendlies before they face New Zealand on July 3 and Australia on July 6.
“We’re going to Brisbane first, which is a little bit warmer in Australia, and we’ll go through a four-day camp there,” Cone said. “Then we have a couple of friendlies that we’ll play in New Zealand. And then from there, we’ll play our first game in New Zealand.”
JB, Thompson, Abarrientos, and Rosario will be joined in the national team by holdovers June Mar Fajardo, Chris Newsome, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, AJ Edu, and Dwight Ramos, along with newcomers Justine Baltazar and Mike Phillips.
