AT THE age of 17 and apparently without too much effort, rising basketball star Kobe Paras has achieved what his father Benjie describes as his lifetime dream: to play in a first-division US NCAA team.
“It’s Kobe’s lifetime dream to play in the US NCAA,” said the elder Paras, the only PBA Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, 1989.
“He has achieved this dream,” said the proud father, who has been instrumental in paving the way for his son’s meteoric rise as a basketball player.
Two years ago, Benjie enrolled Kobe at Cathedral High in Los Angeles. That was the year after the young Paras won the Fiba World Under-16 Slam Dunk title.
That year, Kobe and his family made sacrifices for the sake of his dream. For two years, Kobe seldom saw his family. But the reward was swift: He won back-to-back Fiba World Slam Dunk titles.
Because of his fete, Kobe managed to get permission from his school to visit his family in Manila for a week, although he had wished it was longer. * * *
About the same time, I vaguely remember a contract prepared by Viva Entertainment sitting on the table of Viva boss Vic del Rosario, waiting to be signed by Kobe.
I was sure then that there was another contract somewhere in the offices of GMA-7, where Kobe’s older brother and basketball partner, Andre, is a contract star.
As everyone knows by now, Kobe recently signed a four-year contract with the University of California Los Angeles Bruins.
This was what had always been in Kobe’s mind as early as 2013. For sure, though, he did not expect to be drafted by the prestigious Los Angeles school.
In a recent TV interview, Kobe said he plans to teach and share Filipino culture with his teammates and schoolmates.
From what I recall, he is the first Filipino ever to play for a first-division US NCAA team.
He could also be the first pure Filipino to play in the NBA—if another dream of a lifetime comes true.