TNT, Ginebra starts PBA Comm’s Cup title showdown

Sports

Game today, June 3

(Araneta Coliseum)

Game 1, Finals

7:30 p.m.- TNT vs. Barangay Ginebra

Will the Barangay Ginebra Kings score one big revenge or will it be the TNT Tropang 5G reasserting mastery?

Redemption or validation?

The road to answering this intriguing storyline starts as the defending champions Tropa battle the Kings in Game 1 of the 50th PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Wednesday night, June 3, at the Aranata Copliseum.

The championship series of the mid-season tournament features two squads that faced each other three times in the last eight conferences. And in all those three meetings, the Tropa emerged victorious.

The fourth edition of this heated rivalry was sealed after the Tropa and the Kings dismissed their respective semifinal opponents.

TNT dispatched the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in their best-of-seven semifinal series, 4-2. The Kings also needed six games to oust the Meralco Bolts–TNT’s sister team.

When TNT defeated Ginebra three-in-a-row in a championshio series, it had the workhorse Rondae Hollis-Jefferson as its import.

Now, the Tropa will have to do it with a different import as Chris McCullough will try to stand his ground against Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee.

McCullough has only played three games for the TNT as he came on board when the Tropa’s original import this conference, Bol Bol, went down in Game 2 of the semifinals.

The 31-year-old McCullough has shown he has what it takes to carry a team. He is the same import who steered the San Miguel Beermen to the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup title.

McCullough will be pitted against the 38-year-old Brownlee, a proven winner with six PBA titles–all with Ginebra.

Brownlee, however, has not won a championship since 2023, a long drought that he intends to end.(CCM)