GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone closed the door on any potential last-minute inclusion of young big man Kai Sotto into the national team set to defend its Asian Games men’s basketball crown starting next week in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
“No, no chance. He has other plans,” was Cone’s straightforward response when asked about the possibility for 7-3 Sotto to join Gilas in the Asiad.
Of course, Sotto would have been a welcome addition to a smaller Gilas version headed to Japan.
The left-handed Sotto averaged 15.5 points, 15 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the Philippines’ two-game home sweep of Jordan and Iran in the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers fourth window last week.
Sotto, along with AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos, and Kevin Quiambao were all part of the Gilas-FIBA team.
The four, along with Carl Tamayo, who injured his ankle in Gilas’ 89-87 overtime win over Jordan,— all playing overseas as imports, won’t play in Asian Games.
The American mentor did not elaborate further what he meant on Sotto’s “other plans.”
As per reports, Sotto’s hopes of playing in the US NCAA via the Texas A&M hit a snag due to eligibility issues.
As it is, Cone is standing on his earlier statement that he’s reserving the 12th spot in the Gilas-Asiad team for naturalized player Justin Brownlee, which is recovering from multiple injuries since he last played for the national team against New Zealand in a double-overtime loss in Auckland last July in the third window.
Sotto’s size and vastly-improved skills would have been of great use for Cone and Gilas since the national side will be facing an expectedly vengeful China in the group stage of the Asian Games.
Gilas opens its title-retention bid against Bahrain on Sept. 11, followed by Kazakhstan the next day, with China on Sept. 14 to close the group stage.
Chinese young big man Yang Hansen, who now plays for the Portland Trailblazers, will be reinforcing China, which is out to reclaim the Asian Games glory in this year’s edition.
The 21-year-old Chinese sensation scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds, including the game-winning basket to lift China to a nailbiting 89-87 win over Lebanon in their Asian Qualifiers match last week.
