Familiar faces, new imports coming over for Governors’ Cup

IT’S going to be a mixture of the old and new ones when the PBA Governors’ Cup parade its latest cast of imports beginning on July 10.

Justin Brownlee is again expected to carry the load for Barangay Ginebra as the team seeks to clinch back-to-back championships following its title run in the just-concluded Commissioner’s Cup.

Along with the 38-year-old Brownlee, other old timers making a return stint are Aaron Fuller for Rain or Shine, DeQuan Jones of NLEX, and San Miguel’s George King, who landed on the Beermen’s nest after being released by Blackwater.

Like Brownlee, all three saw action in the same conference during Season 49.

Fuller helped the Elasto Painters reached the semifinals, but lost to TNT Tropang 5G last year. Jones was good enough to steer the Road Warriors to the playoffs, while King introduced himself to the league as an explosive, hot-shooting import who once torched the net for 64 points while donning the Bossing jersey.

Then there are the new ones coming over.

Blackwater tapped former Indonesian Basketball League MVP Kentrell Barkley, guest team Macau is bringing in Will Douglas, Phoenix opted for BJ Johnson, while Magnolia enlisted KJ Buffen.

Aside from his dominant showing in the IBL, Barkley was also MVP in the Vietnam Basketball Association in 2023 while playing for the Saigon Heat where he won a championship.

Douglas is a fixture in the Chinese Basketball Association where he carved out a reputation as an exceptional gunner for the Guangzhou Loong Lions.

Johnson, 30, was a product of Syracuse, who also had prior stints in the NBA with teams such as Orlando, Sacramento, and Atlanta,

The young 26-year-old Buffen is fresh from playing in the IBL with RANS PIK.

Defending champion TNT will be bringing back three-time Best Import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the latter part of the conference, with former NBA player Darius Days kicking off the Tropang 5G’s campaign.

Hollis-Jefferson is still recovering from a ruptured right Achilles tendon and won’t be back in action until late October.