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This Day in PBA History: Brownlee sinks ‘the Shot’ to deliver Ginebra the title

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Rey Joble

<p>The shot that made Justin Brownlee iconic and ended Barangay Ginebra San Miguel&#x27;s 7-year title drought happened on this day, October 19, five years ago, as the Gin Kings closed out what was considered one of the most epic finales in PBA history.</p><p>Ginebra defeated Meralco in 6 games of their best-of-7 championship series with Brownlee&#x27;s buzzer-beating 3-pointer off his counterpart Allen Durham, allowing the Gin Kings to wrap up the series with a 91-88 victory in Game 6.</p><p>Coming in as a replacement import for Paul Harris, the Gin Kings&#x27; original reinforcement that season, Brownlee proved he deserved to be ranked among one of the best imports ever to play in the PBA, and probably one of the best closers.</p><p>Brownlee was so great he became one of the resident reinforcements in the PBA, and one of the all-time favorites of Tim Cone as the import has drawn comparison to another great reinforcement who gave the American mentor multiple championships while playing for the Alaska franchise, Sean Chambers.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/10/19/16/what-celebs-said-about-brownlees-game-winning-shot-for-ginebra">What celebs said about Brownlee&#x27;s game-winning shot for Ginebra</a></li></ul><p>&quot;Maybe Justin is Mr. Do-It-All. He does everything for us, not only on the court, but also off the court. He&#x27;s a great chemistry guy. He keeps everybody together like Sean (Chambers) did. They had different personalities, but the approach to the teammates are very, very similar,&quot; said Cone. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/10/19/16/brownlee-makes-childhood-dreams-come-true-with-game-winner">Brownlee makes childhood dreams come true with game-winner</a></li></ul><p>Brownlee&#x27;s ability to blend well with his teammates, on and off the court, was the reason for the Gin Kings&#x27; success in most of the times he played here.</p><p>&quot;They (Justin and Sean) put their teammates first, before them, which is very rare amongst imports. Imports come in and feel they need to perform. They&#x27;ve got to carry the team, they&#x27;ve got to put the numbers,&quot; said Cone. </p><p>&quot;Justin and Sean understood that they were there for the players. The players are not there for them. I think that&#x27;s the mindset of these two guys that are very similar. That endears them to their teammates. The local players play hard with Sean and Justin because it&#x27;s them (locals) first before they put themselves. That&#x27;s their secret to their success.&quot;</p><p>But what&#x27;s more amazing for Brownlee, according to Cone, was not just his on-court performance. He was even more spectacular during practices that no one among his teammates want to guard him to avoid embarrassment. </p><p>&quot;Aside from the fact on what he does on the floor -- he rebounds, he blocks shots, he dishes out assists, he drives to the basket, he makes pull ups, I mean, what doesn&#x27;t he do? He does it all in big moments,&quot; said Cone. &quot;Obviously, &quot;The Shot&quot; where he hit the three-pointer over Allen Durham was such an epitome of him, he does that in all the four years he&#x27;s been with us. All the time.&quot; </p><p>&quot;But you haven&#x27;t seen all yet. It&#x27;s like Johnny Abarrientos, when you see all those stuff he made on the court and you&#x27;re amazed, if you&#x27;ve been to practice everyday and watch Justin practice everyday, you&#x27;ll be even more amazed. The things he does in practice were just like, &#x27;Whoa&#x27;. There&#x27;s no guy on the team that wants to guard Justin. Even though Justin doesn&#x27;t want to embarrass them, they&#x27;ll get embarrassed because he&#x27;s just that great.&quot;</p><p>Brownlee won 4 titles playing for Ginebra, 3 in the season-ending Governors Cup and one in the Commissioner&#x27;s Cup. His greatness even led to discussions of having him on board as a naturalized player to play for the Gilas Pilipinas national squad and reinforce the country in major international tournaments.</p><p>Norman Black, coach of the Meralco Bolts, whose team has been tormented thrice by the Brownlee-led Gin Kings, considered the import among those to be put in the all-time greatest list of reinforcements in the PBA.</p><p>Cone couldn&#x27;t be more proud as Bronwlee added to his great coaching legacy.<br/> <br/>&quot;I could take credit and say he&#x27;s so good because of my coaching. No, I&#x27;m a good coach because he&#x27;s so good,&quot; said Cone. </p><div><em>Rey Joble is a sports journalist who has been covering the PBA since 1998, and followed the league as a fan way before that. </em></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hcbNlGr5cTw?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

October 19, 2016, will forever be remembered by Ginebra fans as a most glorious day; for Meralco, not so much.