TRUE to his word, Scottie Thompson is working on his game to become more deserving of a spot at Gilas Pilipinas.
The Ginebra rising star recently shared a photo of himself after doing extra workouts at the brand-new Perpetual Help gym in Las Piñas City, embellishing the Instagram post with the hashtag #LateNightGrind.
Thompson, you see, begged off from consideration for the Gilas Pilipinas side bound for the Fiba World Cup in China, saying he needs to improve his gsme further to be more deserving of a spot in the national team.
He's working on that.
“Like I said, I want to get better pa, hoping na someday mag-pay off. Not now pero sana in the future,” he said. “Kailangan tuluy-tuloy at consistent ako doon. Nakakatuwa kasi para sa akin, nafi-feel ko, in shape ako."
Thompson's extra work seemed to be bearing friut early. On Sunday, he grabbed 11 rebounds in Barangay Ginebra’s 102-81 win over Magnolia, his rebound total second only to the 20 of Justin Brownlee.
“Para sa akin, ‘yun ang pinaka-best ko kasi aggressive lang ako lagi. ‘Yung mga tira ko, di pa masyado pumapasok pero stay aggressive pa rin ako para makatulong sa team. Nandiyan naman si Stanley [Pringle], si Kuya LA [Tenorio], si Justin sa offense. For me, talagang dapat mag-focus ako sa defense at hustle plays,” said Thompson.
As he has been consistently holding extra workouts at night at Perpetual, Thompson also couldn’t help but marvel at his alma mater’s new facility which will soon host an NCAA on Tour game for Season 95.
“Ang ganda kaya, sobrang ginaganahan din ako mag-extra work kasi grabe ‘yung suporta ng Perpetual. Sana maging successful sila this coming season ng NCAA,” Thompson said.
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