Kobe Paras on playing for Gilas Pilipinas: It's a dream money can't buy

Despite chasing for the NBA dream now in the United States, rising hoop star Kobe Paras also aimed to play for Gilas Pilipinas, the men's senior national basketball team.

 

"My dream is playing for the Philippine team. It's a dream that money can't buy, so I'm just gonna look up to that dream," the 17-year-old said in a profile video recently released by FIBA.

 

 

The son of PBA legend Benjie Paras is no stranger to representing the flag in international competitions. He played for the Batang Gilas squad in the FIBA Asia Under-18 championship last year. Before that, he won the FIBA 3X3 dunk contest in 2013 that catapulted him into prominence.

 

Paras is now starting to carve a name for himself in the US high school basketball scene, playing for LA Cathedral Phantoms and accepting a scholarship offer from the UCLA.

 

He attracted attention from the local media due to his namesake Kobe Bryant, but he said he wants to be his own person rather than compared to other famous cagers.

 

"I'm not trying to copy anyone. I don't wanna be like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant. I wanna be known as Kobe Paras," he said. "I wanna be original."

 

"I'm just gonna be myself, be the weird, funny me. I'm not gonna change, I'm just gonna continue what I do," he added. —Marisse Panaligan/JST, GMA News