FINALLY, a Best Import award for Justine Brownlee.
The prolific Barangay Ginebra reinforcement beat out his 'brother' Renaldo Balkman of San Miguel for the highest individual award among imports in the PBA Commissioner's Cup.
The 30-year-old American, who was never drafted in the NBA, won the trophy hands down, accumulating a total of 1,209 points after topping both the statistics and the votes of media, players, and the Commissioner's Office.
Balkman was a far second with 858 points.
Brownlee emerged no.1 in terms of statistics with 539, and emerged the runaway winner as choices of both media (445) and the PBA (150). He did win the players vote but by a close margin against Balkman, 75-68.
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It was the first Best Import award for Brownlee after twice emerging runner-up behind Allen Durham during the last two editions of the Governors Cup. But he did won the championship in both instances when the Kings beat the Meralco Bolts in back-to-back fashion in the finals.
Brownlee came as a replacement for Charles Garcia when the Kings limped off to a 1-3 start in the second conference, eventually helping the team reached the finals in his fourth stint with the franchise.
Balkman, who's comeback stint was precipitated by the PBA lifting his lifetime ban this conference, finished second in the statistics department with 504, finished second too, in the media votes (76) and third in the PBA (25).
Rain or Shine's burly import Reggie Johnson placed third with 650 and got the second no. of votes from the PBA with 75 after being the only original import to reach as far as the semifinals of the tournament.
Behind Johnson, the Elasto Painters finished as the top seeded team heading into the playoffs.
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Diamon Simpson of Alaska came at no. 4 with 491 in his second tour of duty in the league.(RG)
