Covid cases sa Australia, mataas.. NBL debut ni Kai Sotto, mauusog

ni VA - @Sports | October 06, 2021

Mukhang maaantala ang pinakahihintay na paglalaro ni Kai Sotto sa National Basketball League (NBL) matapos na magpahayag ang liga na pinaplano nilang iurong ang kanilang season opener dahil sa sitwasyon ng COVID-19 sa Australia.

Sang-ayon kay League commissioner Jeremy Loeliger sa panayam sa kanya ng programang Ball sa ESPN at Real World podcast noong Oktubre 1, hindi pa sila nakakatiyak kung itutuloy ang opening nila sa Nobyembre 18. Prayoridad aniya nila ayon kay Loeliger ang kalusugan, kaligtasan ng lahat ng stakeholders kabilang na ang mga fans na plano nilang pahintulutan na makapanood ng live.

"We're still scheduled to start on November 18," ani Loeliger. "(But) given that we've always said our priority is our fans and allowing them to attend as many games in their home city as possible, it would be derelict of us not to continue to monitor and consider current circumstances of whether or not we push that date back a little further." Inaantabayanan ang NBL season dahil sa nakatakdang paglalaro ng mga overseas players kabilang na si Sotto na lalaro para sa Adelaide 36ers at mga Chinese big men Zhou Qi ng South East Melbourne Phoenix at Liu Chuanxin ng Brisbane Bullets.

"We try to minimize disruptions to clubs and players as much as possible and we play in a code that happens to be a global sport and so a lot of our players are coming from overseas and wanting to play basketball," ayon pa kay Loeliger. "Officially it's still November 18 but you're 100 percent correct [that] there is certainly some murmur on the streets because of that fact that a lot of other codes are continuing to push back and we're continuing to monitor the numbers on a day-by-day basis."