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    For Kai Sotto, Jokic is role model but this Spurs legend is the GOAT

    Kai Sotto says idol Tim Duncan 'is a winner and that's what I want to be'
    Aug 17, 2020
    PHOTO: Jerome AscaƱo | AP

    OVER the weekend, former NBA player and now NBA G League Select team coach Brian Shaw had the internet abuzz when he said Filipino prodigy Kai Sotto has the skills to be a player in the mold of Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.

    It turned out the comparison, while premature, wasn't far off as Jokic - the seven-foot, do-it-all center from Serbia - was exactly the player Sotto aspires to be.

    "It's a big thing to be compared to Jokic because we all know how great a player he is," the 7-foot-2 teenager told a group of mediamen in an online conference on Monday.

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    Sotto, however, is under no illusion that he is close to becoming as good as Jokic, nothstanding the great leap in his game since leaving the Philippines to train, first at The Skills Factory in Atlanta and now in Ohio.

    "There are still a lot of things I need to learn to be as good as him," the former Ateneo Blue Eaglets star said. "My goal isn't exactly to be like Nikola Jokic but to be as good as him."

    Jokic may be his role model, but another big man is GOAT is Sotto.

    "The top player that I really look up to is Tim Duncan," said the teenager, heaping praise not only on the San Antonio Spurs legend's game but also on the way he conducts himself on the court.

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    "I've always seen him as this player who's a great example for his teammates, he doesn't need to talk trash to his opponents, he doesn't complain," he added. "And that's just me. I don't really talk much in games, I don't really talk to opponents.

    "But seeing Tim Duncan, he's always locked in and he's a winner and that's what I want to be."

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    Asked which NBA team he would like to join entering the playoffs, the 18-year old said it's a pity the Spurs are no longer around. But given a choice, Sotto said he'd prefer joining the Los Angeles Lakers.

    Why?

    "I'm a diehard LeBron James fan," he said laughing.

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      PHOTO: Jerome AscaƱo | AP
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