Camille Naredo

Justin Brownlee of the Philippines. FIBA photo

Article (news)

FIBA

Paige Javier

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1787571528205082426_JB.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960" alt="Justin Brownlee of the Philippines. FIBA photo"/>Justin Brownlee of the Philippines. FIBA photo</div>MANILA – The national men&#x27;s basketball team is going all-Filipino in the fourth window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers this week. Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone confirmed on Monday the squad will have to play two crucial home games without naturalized player Justin Brownlee, who continues to recover from injury.  &quot;The big elephant in the room right now is that Justin [Brownlee] is not here and most likely will not play. So we&#x27;ll be going without Justin. And that&#x27;s a big adjustment,&quot; he said at a press conference at the Mall of Asia Arena. The Gilas mentor said Brownlee, who also missed their previous game against Australia and has yet to play for Barangay Ginebra in the PBA, informed them of his condition.Brownlee last played for Gilas in their double overtime 102-106 loss against New Zealand where he produced 5 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 1 block. &quot;He at this point, doesn&#x27;t feel he&#x27;s really healthy enough to contribute. Whether that&#x27;s really injury or health, he was having some issues, obviously,&quot; Cone explained. &quot;As we know from the last window, he wasn&#x27;t able to play against Australia. We&#x27;re hoping that those issues would be resolved by the time we play here, but as it turned out, he&#x27;s telling us that he&#x27;s just not healthy enough,&quot; he added. With Brownlee still sidelined and no other naturalized player available, Cone said they will be fielding an all-Filipino roster.  <div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2026/8/17/cone-ramos-edu-kq-tamayo-eyed-for-wc-qualifiers-all-pba-team-set-for-asiad-1716">READ: Ramos, Edu, KQ, Tamayo eyed for World Cup qualifiers—Cone</a></div>&quot;We couldn&#x27;t get <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2026/6/17/fiba-boatwright-naturalization-finally-passes-senate-s-third-and-final-reading-1131">Bennie Boatwright</a> his papers done. He still doesn&#x27;t have his passport. He hasn&#x27;t had his final approval yet. We haven&#x27;t been able to get that done,&quot; the Gilas mentor shared.&quot;Our other naturalized player, we would&#x27;ve brought Ange Kouame. He is in France under contract. So we&#x27;re going to be attending this window all-Filipino,&quot; he added. Despite not having a naturalized player on the team for the essentially must-win home games, Cone believes Gilas has a competitive squad with the return of big man Kai Sotto. &quot;With Kai [Sotto] here and June Mar [Fajardo] and AJ [Edu] we feel like we have the requisite size to do well in this window,&quot; he said. &quot;You know, ironically we get Kai and AJ together but now we&#x27;re missing Justin. So you know it would have been ideal obviously to have Justin, but from that we have to move on and figure it out,&quot; Cone added.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2026/8/24/fiba-now-fully-healthy-kai-sotto-thrilled-to-help-gilas-rediscover-form-1548">READ: Now fully healthy, Kai Sotto thrilled to help Gilas rediscover form</a></div>Dwight Ramos is expected to play a bigger role especially on the offensive end, being the second top scorer of Gilas behind Brownlee. Cone believes Brownlee&#x27;s absence will also give other players, especially the young guns, to step up for the national team. &quot;It&#x27;s going to give more opportunity for guys like KQ [Kevin Quiambao] and Carl [Tamayo] to step up and get major minutes for Dwight to be more of a take-charge guy so you know you you lose someone but that means other people get opportunities and we&#x27;re going to try to take advantage of those opportunities,&quot; he explained. &quot;I think just by playing together as a team. Everyone&#x27;s gonna contribute and play their role. And play hard. We&#x27;ll see what happens with the results,&quot; Ramos said when asked about Brownlee&#x27;s absence. The Philippines is entering the fourth window with a 2-4 slate and currently ranks joint fifth with Syria in Group E.  Gilas aims to improve its record since only the top three teams and the best fourth-placed squad between Group E and F will advance. The Philippines will take on Jordan on August 28, followed by Iran on August 30 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The national men's basketball team is going all-Filipino in the fourth window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers this week.

The national men's basketball team is going all-Filipino in the fourth window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers this week.

FIBA: No Justin Brownlee for Gilas Pilipinas vs. Jordan, Iran—Cone

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FIBA: No Justin Brownlee for Gilas Pilipinas vs. Jordan, Iran—Cone

Paige Javier,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 24, 2026 07:40 PM PHT

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Gilas Pilipinas

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FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers

Tim Cone

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