CHICAGO - While Kai Sotto was putting together a career-best Japan B.League season with the Koshigaya Alphas, the NBA was quietly watching his progress from a distance.
Through Sunday, the 7-foot-3 center had appeared in 27 games where he averaged 13.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per outing while shooting 52.8 percent from the field.
Prior to that, he dazzled for Gilas Pilipinas at the Fiba Olympic Qualifying tournament last July inLatvia and Georgia.
READ Heartbroken Cone says Kai 'has a lot of basketball ahead of him'
Thanks to those exploits, a stint in the 2025 NBA Summer League was all but guaranteed.
But as we all know by now, he never made out okay that Sunday. An ACL tear put a cruel pause to a carefully plotted journey that began with his arrival at The Skill Factory in Atlanta in 2020.
The long and winding road made detours in the G League and the NBL in Australia before everything - a maturing game and an improved strength and conditioning - seemed to finally come together.
In the blink of an eye, all of that just went puff when his left knee collapsed and became another footnote to basketball's most feared three-letter injury acronym.
ANOTHER UNEXPECTED TURN
So instead of packing for a trip to Las Vegas in a few months and convincing NBA scouts, coaches and executives that he belongs, Kai is bound to go under the knife.
"We are talking to doctors. The swelling has to go down first before surgery takes place, so there is no date yet," a source familiar with the situation told me on Thursday morning.
I've also been informed that Sotto's family is now with him in Japan, which is a big morale boost as Kai navigates what he described as "the darkest day of my basketball career."
There is a chance that the ACL procedure will be done in the US where Kai's reps at Wasserman Sports have incredible access to the best orthopedic surgeons and world-class rehabilitation facilities.
While this injury is catastrophic, it doesn't mean the end of an NBA dream. What it does, however, is force Kai Sotto to start over.
Unfortunately, getting back to where he was before Sunday, when he was charging at the NBA's doorstep, will be exceedingly challenging, a process that will test the limits of Kai's physical strength and mental fortitude.
WINDOW IS CLOSING.
Even after he makes a full recovery, the odds of becoming the first full-blooded Filipino in the NBA just got longer.
When Kai makes another run at the Summer League in 2026, he will then be 24 years old. Besides that, he will also be competing against a tower of giraffes that will attempt to pierce the NBA in the next 18 months.
READ Kai Sotto keeps hopes up on 'darkest day of my basketball career'
Having chronicled his hoops saga through the years and witnessing the hard work and passion he has invested, I am devastated for Kai Sotto both as a reporter and a parent of a 21-year old son.
But such is life, pelted with anguish where the stars can go in disarray as quickly as they can align.
And like tomorrow, nothing is ever promised.
AND ONE.
Now toiling in the second year of his contract, sources revealed Kai Sotto will exercise the player option on a third year, ensuring that while he recovers he will still be one of the - if not the - highest-paid Asian imports in the B.League.
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