Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is congratulated after winning the Best Import award ahead of Game 4 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals. MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—TNT’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson claimed the Best Import award in the PBA Governors’ Cup prior to Game 4 of his team’s Finals showdown with Barangay Ginebra on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Hollis-Jefferson garnered 1147 points through statistics and votes from the media and players to beat out Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee for the honor given to the conference’s top reinforcement.
Brownlee settled for second with 966 points followed by San Miguel Beer’s Cameron Clark with 610 and Meralco’s KJ McDaniels with 573.
The former NBA player with the Brooklyn Nets came in as a replacement for Jalen Hudson despite TNT’s 5-1 record to begin the tournament.
He proved his pedigree right away and catapulted TNT to the championship series with conference averages of 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 2.1 steals going into Game 4.
Hollis-Jefferson was the statistical points leader with 619 points and got the nod of the media votes with 457.
Brownlee was second in stats (570) and in media votes (320) but got 76 player votes over Hollis-Jefferson’s 71.
The beloved Ginebra cager was denied a fourth Best Import that would have broken his tie with Allen Durham for second all-time.
Forty-five percent of the statistical points, 30 percent of the media votes and 25 percent of the player votes were used to determine the winner.