NOW it can be told: Kai Sotto was not eligible in this year’s NBA draft.
East West Private bared yesterday that Sotto, who just graduated from high school last April 2, can only be part of the draft next year.
“There have been a lot of questions and speculations that he’ll be in the 2021 draft but to remind everyone, he just graduated from high school a few weeks ago,” EWP CEO Patty Scott said in an exclusive roundtable interview via Zoom with Filipino reporters.
“The announcement that we have now is that he actually was not eligible for the 2021 draft. He is eligible starting a year after his (high school) graduation class, in the year 2022,” she added.
In a list released by NBA Draft Room last January, Sotto was at 65th place, while ESPN had him at 99th.
The 7-foot-3 Sotto’s NBA agent Joel Bell thinks otherwise.
Had he been eligible to join the draft set on July 29, Bell said Sotto would have realized his coveted dream of becoming the first homegrown Filipino to be tabbed in the NBA draft.
“When Kai was ruled that he was not going to be able to be in the 2021 NBA draft, it was a 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 they will draft him. They were going to draft him,” Bell said.
“We don’t know what spot yet because we have not gone that far and there were several ways before the draft but obviously it’s off the table at this point because he is not eligible for the 2021 draft.”
