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Friday, March 29, 2024

Benjie heads to Los Angeles, comes to the aid of son Kobe

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BENJIE Paras, a former Philippine Basketball Association two-time Most Valuable Player and the only player to win the Rookie of the Year award and MVP accolade on the same year, is now in Los Angeles trying to figure out what happened in the case of his son Kobe, who was suddenly forced to quit University of California in Los Angeles.

Kobe is now looking to play for another US NCAA Division 1 school, with many looking to sign him up.

“They accepted Kobe’s SAT. He was there for one week this summer school and practices. Then suddenly, they released that news,” Paras told The Standard. 

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ABS-CBN’s Steve Angeles reported from LA: “There’s been a change of plans for Kobe Paras, one of college basketball’s most high profile, highly anticipated recruits: He will no longer be a UCLA Bruin.”

Kobe Paras makes one of his winning dunks in the FIBA 3×3 World Championships.

Angeles reported that UCLA announced the withdrawal of the 18-year-old Filipino on Wednesday morning.

 In a statement, the school said: “Incoming freshman guard Kobe Paras, admitted upon condition to UCLA, has withdrawn from the university due to academic conditions of his admission not being met.”

But his coaches at Middlebrooks Academy said he is academically eligible to play for an NCAA Division 1 program.

The Los Angeles Times quoted Cathedral High School officials as saying that “there was an issue with Paras’s Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) score, despite being a consistent honor student.”

Kobe had verbally committed to UCLA in the fall of 2014 as a high school junior. He went on to have a phenomenal junior season, attracting fandom at many of his games as a player for Cathedral High School.

He went on to participate in several high-profile camps.

“Due to an issue in his transfer and credit this past school year, Paras suited up for the Middlebrooks Academy, a basketball prep program that is also run by Cathedral’s coach William Middlebrooks,” said Angeles.

Last February, Cathedral High School announced that Kobe had scored 1750 on his SAT, which is regarded as high.

However, the average incoming UCLA freshman supposedly has a score of 2064.

The withdrawal comes just weeks after Paras checked in on campus with the school, tweeting his visits and his locker room nameplate. He even had a chance to meet his fellow class of 2016 recruits during his visit.

“The issue apparently is SAT. Based on UCLA’s standards and his announced score, he fell below the UCLA average,” coach Middlebrooks said.

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