Gilas’ Kai Sotto during a game against Angola in the Fiba World Cup. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
In just three days, Gilas Pilipinas’ promising center Kai Sotto had the opportunity to test his skills against NBA players.
Although the Philippines remains winless after facing the Dominican Republic and Angola in Group A of the 2023 Fiba World Cup, Sotto found positive takeaways from the experience.
One of them was the chance to play alongside and against NBA players such as fellow Gilas Pilipinas player Jordan Clarkson, Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns, and Angolan Bruno Fernando.
“You can see from KAT to JC (Clarkson), just how great NBA players are. They’re not just NBA players, but they’re really talented. You have to respect their skills and how they contribute to their teams,” said Sotto after their 80-70 loss to Angola on Sunday at Araneta Coliseum.
“It’s a blessing for me to play with Jordan and compete against those [NBA] guys.”
Although Sotto had limited playing time against Towns on Friday, being on the court against Fernando’s Angola showcased his abilities.
In nearly 20 minutes of play, the former Adelaide 36er scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds, while also limiting Fernando to 54.5 percent shooting (6-for-11) with 14 points.
Despite an impressive performance against Fernando, Sotto acknowledged that there is still much work to be done in terms of improvement.
“There are still a lot of mistakes and plenty of room for improvement. After all, there’s no such thing as a perfect game, so I’ll be reviewing the game. But I’m proud of everyone’s effort and fightback,” said the 7-foot-2 big man.
“We fell short, but the fight was there.”
Sotto and Gilas will aim to pull off an upset and defeat Italy by at least 13 points to advance to the second round of the World Cup on Tuesday at Araneta Coliseum.
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Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
