For Jamie Malonzo, the last two weeks have had its highs and lows. After Gilas Pilipinas’ 94-64 victory over Hong Kong in the first window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, a viral video showing Malonzo being on the wrong end of a fight surfaced. Reports later came out that Malonzo missed the Philippines’ next game against Chinese-Taipei due to COVID-19 and gastroenteritis, but surely the beating played a part as well.
Since then, Malonzo has apologized to various parties and has quietly worked his way back into shape. That the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings’ start to the 2024 Honda PBA Philippine Cup was set at a later date certainly helped Malonzo, who had to recover from the physical and mental aspect of it all.
Once the Gin Kings’ Philippine Cup campaign began, we saw Malonzo playing with a different energy.
All the facets of Malonzo’s two-way skillset were on display. He was aggressive offensively and was solid on the defensive end, swatting shots and grabbing rebounds. Against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, the former DLSU Green Archer scored a career-high 32 points, riding a strong first quarter to lead Ginebra to a 113-107 win.
Malonzo was still contributing on both ends of the floor against the Phoenix Fuel Masters, finishing with a double-double and providing an entertaining back-and-forth with Jason Perkins to begin the contest.
Nevermind that Malonzo and Ginebra earned their victories against winless teams; he has continued to provide whatever Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone has needed from him. For his efforts, he’s currently second in the league in scoring (24.5 points per game), averaging a near double-double with his 9.0 rebounds per game, and is setting the pace for blocks per game (2.5).
Malonzo’s versatility has endeared him to the Gilas program and now, he’s showing his capabilities to be a primary option while working within the confines of the system. After all, those same confines have been a good thing for the 27-year old.
We may never know what happened that fateful night, and we surely don’t need to. Malonzo has clearly moved on and it’s great that Ginebra has helped him have an outlet and a safe space. It’s not often that a safe space is provided for everyone and while some on social media unfortunately made fun of his situation, the general public has rooted for Malonzo to bounce back. And so far, he’s done just that on the court.
Jamie Malonzo has had a tough few weeks and as he put that incident behind him, he has played the best basketball of his career thus far. The offcourt things are a personal matter and rightly so, but what Malonzo does on the court is for everyone to see. And at the moment, we’re paying witness to a potential breakout conference campaign.
