MANILA, Philippines — Justin Brownlee was named to the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament digital All-Star five in Riga, Latvia following his all-around efforts that vaulted the Philippines to the crossover semifinals.
The Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player averaged 23 points, 8.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists in the tournament.
The 36-year-old Brownlee, whom Gilas teammate described as the "Michael Jordan of the Philippines," joined newly-minted TISSOT Most Valuable Player Bruno Caboclo and Leo Meindl of Brazil, Rihards Lomazs of host country Latvia, and Cameroon's energetic guard Jeremiah Hill.
Brazil went on to clinch the spot in the Paris Games after rolling past Latvia, 94-69 in the knockout finals on Sunday.
The 6-foot-4 Brownlee had a superb group stage debut, unloading 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists as he led the Philippines to a giant-slaying 89-80 victory over world no. 6 ranked Latvia.
The win marked the country's first victory over a European squad since the national team scored an 84-82 win against Spain in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
Meanwhile, Brownlee took ownership in the Philippines' failure to punch a ticket to the Paris Olympics after Gilas bowed to Brazil, 71-60 in their crossover semifinals on Saturday night.
"I'm not proud of the way I played, I didn't really had a good game, I know I could play better. I felt like I let my teammates down by the way I played today (on Saturday) so (I'm) definitely not happy," Brownlee said in an interview with One Sports.
Brownlee, a six-time PBA champion and three-time Best Import, only had three points in the entire second half to finish with 15 on 5-of-16 shooting against Brazil. His 15-point output was Brownlee's lowest in a Gilas uniform a FIBA tournament.
"Just got to give a lot of credit to Brazil. They played us tough throughout the whole game, they played us physically. They were definitely ready for us," Brownlee added.