WINNING never grows old for Kobe Paras.
Now with Altiri Chiba, the Filipino high-flyer is at ease in his role which has tremendously helped him to be a major contributor for the second-division side in the Japan B.League.
And he only has coach Andrej Lemanis to thank for.
"With my team now, our coach is the former coach of the national team of Australia, so the way he does practice and the way he coaches is different. He's not the type of coach na nagagalit palagi. To see a coach like that who has a winning mentality is great and it's very fun to be a part of," said Paras.
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It really is a complete 180 turn from his first season in Japan when the former University of the Philippines star had to carry the heavy expectations at first-division club Niigata Albirex BB.
"Last year sa Niigata, I had more pressure cause the coach saw me as an import. I had to produce every game which was a lot of pressure," he said.
Now, the 25-year-old Paras is just playing his game and it shows, averaging 6.9 points on 39.2-percent clip from deep, along with 1.4 assists, and 1.2 rebounds in 15 minutes of action through 22 games.
His contributions are greatly appreciated too, boosting Altiri Chiba's run to the top of the standings with their 25-5 win-loss card while in the middle of a 14-game win streak.
"The team I am with now, I'm just really grateful for everyone we have," Paras said. "Parang bagong feeling ulit na nananalo and it's a good thing na nasasanay na ulit ako ngayon and hopefully our team could continue this win streak."
Really, it's quite a feat for a team which just got promoted from the third division and is in a prime position to move up to the first division if it could keep this momentum going.
But there's still the second half of the season to play and Paras wants Altiri Chiba to keep one foot on the pedal knowing that the bigger wars are still ahead,
"All we have to do is work and listen to our coach. There's a long stretch in the second half of the season and it's gonna be tough. A lot of people thinks it's easy because we performed well at the start of the season but it's a different story going down the road," he said.
"I'm excited to get back to work and hopefully, help the team win more games."
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