Everyone following this Tim Cone Gilas Pilipinas iteration knows that the PBA’s winningest coach has more or less staked the national team’s chances on Kai Sotto. Unfortunately, the big guy won’t be playing in the second window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, where Gilas will be taking on regional behemoths New Zealand and Australia.
Part of the Business Side of Hoops?
Word is, Kai Sotto won’t be suiting up for Gilas because his management team wants him to continue his ACL recovery despite already looking fine in his return to action in the Japan B.League. But rather than make a big deal of this decision, Cone told former PBA commissioner Noli Eala on his Power & Play podcast that he fully understands where the Kaiju camp is coming from. He then put to rest any insinuation that Sotto’s Japanese team, the Koshigaya Alphas, was the one barring the big man from playing for the Philippines.
“If I was the coach of Kai on my pro team and I had to release him to another coach… it’s one thing if he’s playing with me all the time and I can eyeball him, I can see what he’s doing, I can make adjustments to his playing time, I can make adjustments to his practice time, I can adjust the drills to make sure he’s recovering and staying healthy from his recovery. And if I can’t do that from a coach’s standpoint, I wouldn’t want to release him to another coach who I can’t guarantee will have the same attitude or concern over him,” Cone pointed out. “I completely understand if the team doesn’t want him to play, but under FIBA rules, they have to, so I don’t think it’s coming from them.”
Cone Looking at Kai Sotto’s Long-Term Viability
Ultimately, what matters to Cone is having Kai Sotto in the long run—and perhaps as far as the FIBA World Cup next year if Gilas ever makes it there.
“To be honest, as important as this is… the long-term viability of Kai is more important than this window in front of us,” Cone emphasized. “We need to have him when we play the Middle East, we need to have him for the World Cup, we need to have him down the line. That’s where it’s most important for him, so I have complete understanding of him not joining us this time. I’m really okay with it, and I’m just hoping we can work things out …”
The third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers will be in July, where Gilas will face three of Jordan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. And for Cone’s and the national team’s sake, the hope is that Kai Sotto will, indeed, be back in action for that window.
