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    Why Kai Sotto is headed Down Under and not anywhere else

    Agent Joel Bell explains why Sotto chose to play in Australia over other options
    Apr 21, 2021

    AUSTRALIA has attracted a lot of budding talents in the past few years, with the likes of LaMelo Ball and RJ Hampton just a few of those who took their act Down Under before heading to the NBA.

    Count Kai Sotto among those upstarts.

    The Filipino prodigy is the latest young blood to head to the National Basketball League (NBL) as he agreed to a multi-year deal with the Adelaide 36ers on Wednesday.

    It answers what has been one of the biggest basketball mysteries for the past month after Sotto decided to mutually part ways with the NBA G League Ignite squad.

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      But how did it come to be?

      Well, there's only one guy who deserves the credit: Joel Bell.

      The American agent, who is the president of Bell Sports Inc., boasts of more than two-decade experience in sports agency and served as the link between Sotto and his handlers at East West Private and the 36ers brass.

      "I would say that I am incredibly impressed with Kai as a person, how hard he's worked in his training and the people that he's been around and his family," Bell said of his impressions of the 7-foot-3 beanpole.

      Sotto's NBA draft ineligibility weighed in the decision. The 18-year-old just graduated high school at Miami School in Hamilton, Ohio earlier in the month, which meant that he can only declare for the draft in 2022 at the earliest.

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      "When Kai was ruled that he wasn't going to be in the 2021 draft, it was a kind of surprise to a lot of people. As his NBA agent, I had talks with several teams and he was going to be drafted. Several teams said that he was going to be drafted and they were going to draft him, but they didn't know what spot yet since it was still quite a ways from the draft," said Bell.

      "Obviously, that's off the table at this moment because he isn't eligible for the 2021 draft. So we decided to look obviously other opportunities for him."

      Sotto's potential was enough to attract offers from multiple clubs, but his handlers weighed heavily on how big the team could aid his overall development.

      "He fielded multiple offers from multiple teams around the country, but obviously one of the top priorities to Kai's development as well as the GMs, the coaching staff," said East West Private's Patty Scott.

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        Bell added, "We did it very quietly and very discreetly, cause we think it's the best way to do things. And after a pretty intensive negotiation with a lot of people, it was determined that it was the best spot for Kai Sotto to play with the Adelaide 36ers of the Australian basketball league."

        "There were a lot of reasons to this. Number one, the Australian league is an outstanding league. All you have to do is look at the number of players that have gone there to the NBA. Number two is in the 36ers, the mangement and coaching staff is just the best I've ever seen.

        "The general manager, Jeff Van Groningen is a brilliant orchestrator of team structure, and their head coach, Conner Henry is a former NBA player and he brings that expertise. And they've made an unbelievable commitment not just toward working with Kai's development with the team but getting to his own training regiment and diet. It's going to be a fantastic situation."

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        It also helps, of course, that Australia is just an eight-hour plane ride from Manila.

        "Kai was very happy that of all the places that we were talking about, Australia was closest to the Philippines and certainly a lot closer than Russia. So he was happy about that and I think it's going to be an outstanding opportunity for him," said Bell.

        Scott agreed, noting: "It was just the perfect fit for what we want and what we have with regards to Kai both from a development perspective as well as a team that we felt that we're comfortable with partnering with."

        Sotto is expected to come to Adelaide by August in time for the start of the 2021-22 NBL season.

        Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph

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