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So who exactly is Kai Sotto? He is a 7’2 Filipino phenomenon who can dribble, shoot and pass with ease. The teenager also ranked 65th on ESPN’s Top 100 Players for the Class of 2020. In the Philippines, he is already an inspiration.
It is also an experiment. Sotto, the pride of the Manila suburb of Las Piñas, is one of six young players – two internationals – who have been chosen for the G League Select Team, which was formally named the G League Ignite on Wednesday. He is excited.
If you’re unaware of how G League Ignite works, the NBA is building a team of 18-year-old prospects who will play a limited schedule of G League games next season and get paid – an alternate avenue to pursue their NBA. dream.
For basketball experts like Brian Shaw, who the NBA has hired to coach the Ignite, Scotto is the second coming of Nikola Jokic.
“I think Kai, with a lot of greats in the NBA, has the ability to play like Jokic,” Shaw, a three-time NBA champion as a player and veteran NBA coach, said after watching him. There is a lot of surveillance. He said he’s trying to imitate Tim Duncan.
And it is still growing. According to one report, it could reach a maximum of 7’6 “
In addition to Sotto, the other players recruited to the Walnut Creek, California-based team include Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Isaiah Todd and Daishen Nix, all of the best high school players in the US, as well as Princepal Singh of India. There’s a lot of potential NBA talent there …
They will benefit from the G league experience in many ways. They will receive full scholarships to Arizona State University and will be paid around half a million dollars. Then, at the end of the 2020-21 season, they, like their NCAA and international siblings, will be eligible for the NBA Draft.
The transition from playing in the Philippines to the United States and the G League has already impacted the Filipino big man. Sotto told me that he knows he will be watched.
“My challenge here in the United States is how they play. Being an international player from Asia, they don’t give you respect right away, you have to earn it. They really have great players here. Every time I play I have to earn everyone’s respect and play the best I can.
“For an 18-year-old who just finished high school and playing in the G league is very important to me, for a player like me,” Sotto told me. “I know that I will play against great players, stronger players and faster players, so I am just trying to prepare myself to be better. That will be the best way to improve to play against players like them, to be surrounded by an incredible coaching staff and incredible teammates. I can not wait “.
In addition to wanting to improve, the trip of the Philippine prodigy has to do with the pride of his country. He wants to be an athlete that all of Southeast Asia can look up to. He remembered the impact Manny Pacquiao had growing up. Now a senator in the Philippines, he was the first boxer to win world titles in eight weight divisions.
“That is something very important to me. It’s a bit unfair to compare myself to Manny Pacquiao because Manny Pacquiao was the GOAT in how Manny Pacquiao affected the Philippines not just in sports but in life. Every time there is a Manny Pacquiao fight or battle, everyone stops and looks at him. I just hope that one day I can have that effect on the people, on the Filipinos. “
That combination of humility and pride has led many NBA players to where they are. Some might say that without the combination, success is difficult.
Sotto made the decision to quit college and go the G League route in May, two days after his 18th birthday. The G League, which is the NBA, recruited him. Since then, he has been exercising, preparing for the G League season.
“There are always challenges for me every day. There are times when you feel tired and don’t want to exercise, but you always remember how much I love basketball. This is how I keep working, ”he said.
He said he knows he will have a lot to prove, probably more than his teammates Jalen Green and Jonathan Kuminga, who were the top high school recruits in California and New Jersey.
Those who have seen Sotto, like Shaw, know that his skill set is more international than American. He was trained at a young age to play multiple positions, although he notes that from a young age his 6’7 ”father and 6’0” mother knew he would be very tall.
“My dad, when he was still a child, tried to teach me almost everything,” he told me. “And you know that growing up watching my dad… you know my dad is a good shot. Not now, but before, what it was. He just taught me how to shoot from all points and how to make easy shots, effortlessly. I think I improved my shooting thanks to him … and also to my coaches.
“My dad always knew he was going to be this tall, so he didn’t start training me as a guard. In the Philippines, I was always the tallest. So every coach has to teach me to be a great guy. So my dad was one of the few coaches or coaches that I had to teach me how to handle the ball, but as soon as I got here, all the coaches I had taught me how to improve my handling of the ball. That has worked a lot for me. “
He said he’s talked to his mother about college. She has that scholarship to the state of Arizona, guaranteed by the NBA.
“My mom and I always talked about her studying and finishing college. She always tells me that this is going to be very important to me, so I don’t know yet. I have always wanted to continue my education and am excited to know what it feels like to be a college student. “
Kai Sotto will be a pleasure to see him in the G League every time the G League returns. His season was suspended in March and then canceled in June. Obviously, it was not the priority for the NBA what the “bubble” was.
If you fulfill your dream of reaching the NBA, you will make history in your country. Even more Filipinos will sign up for the NBA fan base, where Filipinos are already a big problem. Fun fact: Filipinos are second only to Americans in the number of fans visiting the official Brooklyn Nets website. Same here on NetsDaily. There is still a long way to go for Kai Sotto, but the ceiling is high. It will be fun to see how high he can go himself. He’s ready.
“One of the things that I was fortunate to do is coach a lot of big guys, especially when they were very young,” Brian Shaw said last week. “Kai is young, and a lot of times when you grow up so fast at such a young age, it takes a little longer to regain your body and strength and get a base that reaches you.”
Sotto says he models himself after Tim Duncan and when asked which playoff team he would like to join if he could, he first said, “I mean the Spurs, but the Spurs are no longer in the playoffs. . “It seems like he would like to be coached by Duncan’s coach. You never know.
