MANILA, Philippines – The waiting game is once again in effect for Filipino fans as the Adelaide 36ers have ruled Kai Sotto out of their first Australia National Basketball League (NBL) regular season game on Friday, December 3, due to knee soreness.

This means that the official pro basketball debut of the 19-year-old unicorn has been pushed back at the earliest to Sunday, December 5, when the 36ers will host the Illawara Hawks at 10 am, Manila time.

By Friday, Sotto will have missed five straight games for Adelaide, including the last four preseason games which the 36ers all won to cop the NBL Blitz championship.

The 7-foot-3 NBA aspirant last played in Adelaide’s first preseason game last November 14 against the Cairns Taipans, where he finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in 20 minutes as a starter.

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Head coach CJ Bruton time and again has emphasized that the 36ers want to bring their prized project along slowly as the season progresses in order to manage his health and conditioning.

“Kai’s approach, it’s been amazing,” Bruton said in a previous interview. “Being a young kid to adapt and learn on the fly, he’s grown leaps and bounds from where he was at the start.”

“Right now, it’s just Kai being the best player he can be at this point in time, and to continue to work on his body and his skills, and understanding our system itself, and on the floor.” – Rappler.com