Kai Sotto’s basketball academy is almost finished.
The 18-year-old Sotto, who is set to return to the Philippines to join the Gilas Pilipinas national men’s basketball practices, said this after he gave an update on his plans to set up a basketball academy, and sell apparel that’s named after him.
“This right here is a dream coming true. Workers are busy building and very soon, the Spooky Nook Champion Mill will open and will be the permanent home to the first ever Kaiju Global Academy,” said Sotto on Instagram as he showed picture of the work going on to finish the academy.
Sotto won’t be joining Team Ignite when they see action in the National Basketball Association G League which will play under a bubble setup in Orlando, Florida next month.
The 7’3” Sotto will join Gilas Pilipinas when they plunge into action in the FIBA Asia Cup’s Group A qualifier in Doha in the latter weeks of February.
Another Ignite teammate, Princepal Singh, who plays for the Indian national squad, won’t be joining his team for the FIBA Asia Cup Group D’s February window anymore since he has not been asked to rejoin their practices.
Singh also left the G League squad to play for his national team, India, during the second window of the qualifiers last November. And now Singh will be in Florida with the rest of his Ignite teammates, according to team officials.
Sotto began working on organizing the Kaiju Academy last December. It will be located inside Spooky Nook in Hamilton, Ohio.
Spooky Nook is a 1.3 million-square-foot sports facility that is under construction in a building that used to be a paper mill.
Once done, Sotto said this will fulfill his dream of being able to teach basketball to young athletes on a global scale.
Sotto wants to help kids who were like him, recalling the days when he played street ball on concrete and dirt-covered courts alike in his neighborhood in Las Piñas.
“I grew up playing on dirt and concrete basketball courts in the Philippines. So, to have a playground and performance center like this for all athletes around the world to come to is such a blessing,” said Sotto.
Officials at the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas said the most important thing is for Sotto to get to join his teammates at Gilas.
“Ang importante dito, as soon as possible we can get him in the Philippines and we’ll see it from there,” said SBP special assistant to the secretary Ryan Gregorio on “The Chasedown.