GINEBRA WINS THE 2026 PBA COMMISSIONER'S CUP!

With a boxer’s cut on his right eye, Scottie Thompson came out of his offensive slump when it was needed most.

And this gave the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings a rare grand slam.

RJ Abarrientos won the Best Player of the Conference award.

Justin Brownlee won the Best Import award.

And Scottie Thompson won the Finals MVP award.

While these individual awards are good and all, the third one is the most important.

Not only did Ginebra break its Finals losing streak against TNT, but it also clinched its 16th title.

All I know is that it was the beginning of the end for TNT when Ginebra had that insane third-quarter turnaround. TNT called for a timeout, and you could see Chot Reyes throw his board on the floor before ejecting Glenn Khobuntin to either the deep side of the bench or perhaps even the dugout.

I was looking for Khobuntin, but he was nowhere to be found, at least from what I could see whenever the cameras showed the TNT bench.

When the fourth quarter came around, Chris McCullough was able to get TNT going, but he also missed five of eight free throws. Then TNT went almost exclusively to McCullough, with mixed results, and failed to capitalize on Stephen Holt not making his shots and RJ Abarrientos being called for a Flagrant 1.

Scottie Thompson was all over the place, doing an admirable job supporting Brownlee, and there was even that Nard Pinto triple that shifted the momentum to the Gin Kings. TNT was able to cut the deficit to three, but in the end, Ginebra completed the pattern of the series, winning all the odd-numbered games while TNT won all the even-numbered ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qoKphuwdhQ

Yes, Chot Reyes is a masterclass in coaching, but when it comes to winning time, it's hard to go mano a mano against a coach like Tim Cone. The two-time grand slam winner just nailed title number 26 in 2026, and it's insane that he'll have Brownlee back for the PBA Governors' Cup.

And speaking of Brownlee, it's hard not to put him in the conversation for the greatest import of all time. He is now a seven-time champion and a four-time Best Import winner, and that total could have been higher if not for chief rival Rondae Hollis-Jefferson sitting out the conference while recovering from an ACL injury.

Brownlee started this conference as the league's smallest import, but it felt like he had something working in his favor, and that's knowing how to be an import by PBA standards. Yes, there were seven-footers, Bol Manute Bol included, but almost all of them came with baggage. Some weren't agile enough to play on the perimeter, which was exactly what most teams exploited to render their height useless. This prompted those imports to rely on their questionable outside shooting.

Not only did Brownlee know what to do, but he also managed to hold off Father Time with those double-50 performances at age 38. TNT tried to contain Ginebra's charge by letting Brownlee do the heavy lifting, assigning poor RR Pogoy to guard him almost all by himself. Unfortunately for them, the others stepped up as well.

And while I know Chot Reyes had Kim Aurin as his designated "Magic Bunot," I thought he could have used some of his other veterans to help his starters, such as Kevin Ferrer, Justin Chua, Simon Enciso, and even rookie Sean Quitevis, just to make things interesting when they needed a little more oomph in the second half.

While Calvin Oftana and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser suited up for TNT, with Jayson Castro sidelined, they were clearly struggling.

I really believe that TNT's overdependence on C-Mac hurt its second-half charge. But it's not like that was a bad thing. McCullough joined the team when every game they played was essentially do-or-die.

Yes, it would have been better if TNT had Bol Manute Bol in the Finals, but for a player who joined the team on such short notice, McCullough did a wonderful job establishing himself as a dangerous threat. TNT relied almost exclusively on the former San Miguel import in Game 6, and it worked.

Ginebra just had the better team.

So there's no question that Ginebra deserved the win and the championship. They made quick work of the Phoenix Fuel Masters, stopped Rain or Shine's run, and got their revenge against TNT.

So congratulations to Barangay Ginebra for winning the Commissioner's Cup in front of a jam-packed MOA Arena crowd, and perhaps we might see them rise above everyone in the Governors' Cup.