SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Like many other renowned coaches and players in the Philippines and abroad, Gilas Pilipinas program director Tab Baldwin has nothing but glowing reports for Filipino wunderkind Kai Sotto.
And like many other basketball pundits, the decorated tactician also preached patience to the Filipino fans aching to see the next big Pinoy basketball superstar emerge.
“Basketball knowledge and his skill were the areas we probably saw the biggest improvements. His intensity, he’s training better each day, [but] he still has work to do, and every young player does,” Baldwin told Rappler in an interview.
“But there were very positive signs and there’s no reason to feel pessimistic about anything. He certainly is on the path to be a very good professional basketball player.”
Sotto, and most notably, his camp, were met with mixed reactions following a controversial exit with NBA G League Ignite, the NBA’s pioneering endeavor for alternative paths to the world’s best basketball league.
While Fil-Am prospect Jalen Green flourished and led the team to the G League playoffs, the 18-year-old Sotto followed his camp’s advice to go home for Gilas training, and was eventually quietly dropped from the Ignite roster without playing a single second on the court.
Despite Sotto’s short-lived stay back home following the postponement of the FIBA Asia Cup third qualifier window, Baldwin is not pointing any blaming fingers at anyone, and is instead just focusing on the positives the national team saw in his time with them.
“Kai is really trying to realize his ambitions which is to make it to the NBA, he’s training really hard, it’s a difficult pathway. And it’s a pathway that has multiple directions to it like the NCAA in the States,” he said.
“Whether you try to play in Europe, whether you would try and play in the [G League], every pathway has work, and every pathway has [potential] for players. And what we saw in Kai was we saw a kid who has improved unquestionably. We saw a kid who enjoyed playing very much back in the Gilas uniform.”
Although Gilas has once again halted training due to the new surge of COVID-19 cases, Baldwin is keeping the door open for the 7-foot-3 Sotto to return, so the national team can further help him in his ultimate dream of becoming an NBA player.
“Kai can be a big asset to Gilas both now and the future,” he said. “So he’s obviously welcome whenever he has a break in his calendar and can make it work.”
Sotto is currently back in the US working out with multiple NBA-caliber trainers, and is looking for the next big opportunity to push his career forward. – Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.