Jason Brickman has been knocking on the PBA door as early as four years ago, but when he joined the Rookie Draft and got selected on Sunday night, he was nowhere among the top five in a cast that has been considered lacking in marquee names, yet enough to shore up the 12 competing squads in the league’s 50th season.
But the Meralco Bolts found themselves lucky to land Brickman at No.7 and head coach Luigi Trillo sees someone who can make an immediate impact on the squad.
“For sure,” said Trillo when asked whether Brickman can create an immediate impact for the team. “He may be a little bit older now, but I see still him at the peak of his career. If he had entered the draft as early as four years ago, I’m sure he would have ended up in the top two.”
Brickman caught the attention of Pinoy hoop fans when he led the Malaysia Westport Dragons to the Asean Basketball League championship in 2016 when the team was still being handled by Ariel Vanguardia.
Since then, Brickman has decided to stay closer, even representing the Mighty Sports team, which represented the country in the William Jones Cup and Dubai International Tournament in 2019 and alo played that same year with the San Miguel Beermen in the ABL.
Brickman made known his intention to join the PBA Draft shortly after, but because of difficulty processing his requirements brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, his plans of playing in Asia’s pioneering professional league got stalled for several years — until the league relaxed its rules on Fil-foreign players and the Division 1 guard found it as the right opportunity.
He wrapped up his Asian journey with stints in the T1 League until he got injured two seasons ago.
When he recovered, he decided to return to the Philippines, this time in the MPBL with the Abra Weavers, a strong contender for this season’s national championship.
Trillo said that picking up Brickman was similar to the case of Jimmy Alapag, who prior to retiring for good, spent a season playing for the Bolts and led the team to a championship run before losing to Barangay Ginebra via Justin Brownlee’s epic buzzer-beating trey in Game 6 of the PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-seven finals series.
“In some ways they’re similar, except that Jimmy has longer range when taking those three-point shots, but Jason is an excellent passer and a good leader. For you to become a great point guard, you need that kind of skill set, something in the mold of Hector Calma, Johnny Abarrientos, Ronnie Magsanoc and Alapag,” said Trillo.
“We’re happy to have him at No.7 and we’re fortunate several teams passed up on him. Maybe because they’re looking at the age factor as a downside, but for us, we believe that he’s still at the peak of his game at 33. Plus, we will be playing in the EASL, so I guess Brickman is very much familiar with the international brand of game and he’ll be a good fit for us. ”
