Brownlee faces doping issue again

MANILA, Philippines — Justin Brownlee’s Gilas Pilipinas stint in the forthcoming FIBA Asia Cup might be in peril.

For the second time around, the Gilas naturalized player is facing an alleged anti-doping violation that could keep him out for the Asian tournament slated Aug. 5 to 17 in Saudi Arabia.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) confirmed yesterday that Brownlee “has received notice of an adverse analytical finding” on one of his random tests.

“Brownlee is currently dealing with the situation aided by his US-based lawyers,” the local federation said.

As per the US Anti-Doping Agency, “an AAF is a report from a WADA-accredited laboratory that identifies the presence of a prohibited substance and/or its metabolites or markers in a sample. This is commonly referred to as a positive test.”

It remains unclear what substance it was, in which tournament Brownlee got the AAF notice or if he would be handed out another suspension given the multiple games he’s been into with Gilas in the entire FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers and the PBA with Barangay Ginebra as its resident import.

Before that, the 35-year-old American-Filipino came off a three-month provisionary suspension he opted to serve instead of requesting for a B-sample after testing positive during the 19th Asian Games in China – where Gilas won a gold medal after 61 years – for Carboxy-THC, a compound linked with cannabis.

It’s not a performance-enhancing drug but still falls under one of the banned substances of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Still, the SBP cleared that nothing is certain as of now with regards to Brownlee’s status pending an official verdict from FIBA.

“The SBP wishes to clarify that FIBA has not issued any official ruling as of date,” said the SBP.