KAI Sotto gamely admitted 2021 proved to be a challenging year. The best he can do is bounce back big.
“Started the year rough but I just believed it’ll all become better as long as I believe in myself,” Sotto said on his Instagram account on New Year’s Day last Saturday.
“‘God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers’ is what I always tell myself,” added Sotto.
After sitting out Adelaide’s first four games in the new season of the National Basketball League of Australia due to soreness in his right knee, the towering 7-foot-3 big man finally suited up in the 36ers’ 67-93 loss to the Cairns Taipans last Dec. 18.
Sotto, who also missed Adelaide’s four preseason matches, saw action for nine minutes and 50 seconds off the bench and wound up with one point, three rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.
The 36ers are set to plunge back to action on Jan. 7 against the Perth Wildcats at home at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Adelaide’s last two games were postponed after the squad entered the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols following an infection in one of its players.
Sotto, 19, is convinced all the adversities and sacrifices will be all worth it.
“This year was the first year when I had my birthday, and New Year’s away from family and home,” Sotto said. “But I believe these sacrifices will all turn out to be ones that will strengthen me at the end of the day.”
Adelaide came off a seventh-place finish with a 13-23 card in 2020 behind star Josh Giddey, who was chosen sixth overall by Oklahoma City in the NBA draft last July.
The NBL’s season was initially set to kick off on Nov. 18 but was mothballed due to travel issues and vaccination woes in Australia.
The league kicked off its new season last Dec. 3.
The son of former pro Ervin, Sotto graduated from high school at Miami School in Hamilton, Ohio last April.
A former UAAP juniors’ MVP with Ateneo High School and a former Gilas Youth mainstay now proving his worth with the senior’s squad, Sotto left the country in 2019 to train at the Atlanta-based The Skills Factory.
