Undefeated in all of his five Finals appearances, Justin Brownlee is facing an entirely different challenge this time around as he tries to nab his sixth title in the league against a PBA guest team.
Armed with enough artillery to go tooth and nail against the stacked Dragons roster, Brownlee believes that Bay Area poses the biggest challenge, not just for him but also the entire Ginebra squad.
“Definitely a huge challenge, I think probably the biggest challenge that we faced in the finals. A lot of credit to the teams in the previous but with their versatility and size, we've seen them in the eliminations but in the past we played a PBA team that we are more familiar with,” said the resident Ginebra import.
“With them, we are less familiar but I'm sure as the series goes along though, we know we'll figure some things out about them and what they're gonna do and how they do it but it's gonna be a big challenge,” said Brownlee.
Ginebra actually defeated Bay Area, 111-93, in the eliminations with Brownlee exploding for 46 points. The Dragons however showed great improvement playing alongside import Andrew Nicholson – evident with their huge series win against San Miguel Beer in the semifinals.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone agreed that facing a foreign guest team should play a huge factor in the series as they have to learn how to contain them through the course of the series.
“It's really the idea that we're playing a so-called foreign guest team. I think that's the motivating factor that's gonna be the difference in this series as opposed to the other series we've played,” said Cone.
“That's really exciting, it is out of the ordinary, it's different. I never coached against a coach like him and our players haven't played against these guys either so it's all new and anything new is exciting