MANILA – Kai Sotto aims to realize his dream of becoming the first full-fledged, home-grown Filipino to be selected in the 2022 NBA Rookie Draft on Thursday night (Friday morning in the Philippines) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The 7-foot-3 Filipino center admitted that to enter in the most prestigious basketball league in the world is tough but he will be banking on his childhood dream to make it possible.
“I would say, it all starts from a dream, from a goal… In the Philippines, there’s a saying libre lang mangarap — it’s free to dream,” the former Gilas Pilipinas center said in an interview organized by NBA Philippines.
“When I heard about that, I dreamt big. Since my dad played in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association), I said I want to play in the NBA,” added the former Ateneo Blue Eaglets big man.
Sotto was supposed to play for the NBA G-League Ignite team as a preparation for his NBA dream but made a U-turn and instead played for Adelaide 36ers in the Australian NBL.
In the weeks and days leading to the NBA Draft, Sotto worked out with several NBA teams, including Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, and Sacramento Kings, where he met former PBA player Jimmy Alapag.
Joel Bell, Sotto’s agent in the United States, said he learned from some informants that the Filipino behemoth will be one of the 58 aspirants to be called in the annual draft festivities.
“I am strongly convinced that Kai is to be selected in the upcoming draft,” Bell said in an interview. “What the average person does not realize about Kai is that he is an unbelievable passer.”
“You can run your offense through Kai and that is not something you can say about a lot of frontcourt players in professional basketball. He has got an unbelievable basketball IQ,” he added.
He is currently ranked No. 49 by Sports Illustrated in its mock draft, although other mainstream sports outlets in the United States do not see Sotto among the players who will hear their names called on draft night.
Meanwhile, aside from Sotto, two more aspirants with Filipino lineage in Filipino-American guards Remy Martin and Ron Harper Jr. will be among the choices for the NBA squads in the draft./PN
