Ginebra's Thompson, Brownlee cop top PBA conference awards

MANILA, Philippines – Barangay Ginebra's do-it-all guard Scottie Thompson basked in the limelight as the Best Player of the PBA Season 46 Governors' Cup, gaining a huge reward for his standout performance in the import-flavored tournament.

The high-leaping Thompson shared glory with Ginebra’s resident reinforcement Justin Brownlee, who won his second Best Import plum during the awarding ceremony ahead of Wednesday night’s Game Four at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Thompson emerged as the runaway winner for the prestigious BPC as he amassed 1,128 points built around 401 points from statistics, 480 from media votes, 97 from players votes and 150 from the PBA votes.

The 28-year-old Thompson logged an all-around production of 13.5 markers, 9.6 rebounds, six assists and 1.1 steal per outing as he played a key role in the Gin Kings’ victorious stints in the quarterfinals against No. 3 TNT and semifinals against No. 2 NLEX.

The former NCAA MVP from Perpetual bested TNT’s Mikey Williams (699 points), NorthPort duo Robert Bolick (581) and Arwind Santos (428) and Phoenix’ Matthew Wright (385) for his first career BPC.

Thompson, who was the Finals MVP when Ginebra dominated the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup, became only the 17th player to cop the BPC since it was first awarded in 1994.

For his part, Brownlee finally captured the Bobby Parks trophy in his pet tournament, the Governors’ Cup. The Ginebra super import won once before, but it was during the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup, a competition for taller imports.

Brownlee tallied 1,275 points behind 559 from stats, 493 from media votes, 73 from players’ votes, and 150 from the league to beat Magnolia’s Mike Harris (795), Meralco’s Tony Bishop (739) and NLEX’ Cameron Clark (443) for the accolade.

Thompson and Brownlee were the first players from the same team to win the BPC and Best Import plums in the same conference since the TNT duo of Jayson Castro and Terrence Jones achieved the feat in the 2019 Commissioner’s meet.

Both Thompson and Brownlee are expected to push harder to help Ginebra send the ongoing title showdown with Meralco to a 2-2 tie.