How NBL Helped Sotto’s NBA Dream

Adelaide 36ers youngster Kai Sotto has revealed how playing in the NBL has helped his development towards Friday’s NBA Draft.

Sotto has worked out with numerous teams ahead of the draft and in an interview with the Indiana Pacers media team, the 20-year-old explained how being in a professional environment has prepared him for the NBA.

“It really helped me a lot. The experience, just hanging around with the guys and learning from everybody, starting from my staff, my teammates, and to my coaches and to my opponents,” Sotto said.

“The whole year was a really fun experience, really learned a lot and really helped me develop and improve as a player.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Adelaide36ers</a> center Kai Sotto (<a href="https://twitter.com/kzsottolive?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kzsottolive</a>) talks about what it would mean to be the first player born in the Philippines to play in the NBA and how playing in the <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBL</a> prepared him to make that jump.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoldOnTheClock?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GoldOnTheClock</a> <a href="https://t.co/oAo5h51GZZ">pic.twitter.com/oAo5h51GZZ</a></p>&mdash; Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1539372875794235397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sotto had a strong finish to the season with the 36ers, including scoring double-figures in his last two games and scoring a career high 21 points against Brisbane in April.

If he is drafted, Sotto will be the first Filipino born player to play in the NBA.

“If I get a chance to be on an NBA team, I would give my best and give everything I have,” he said.

The NBA Draft is on Friday at 9:30am AEST. It will be broadcast live on ESPN.