Benjie Paras’ son flies high
by FFE Sports News staff
Flanked on the podium by contenders from the US and Spain, Kobe Paras smiles for the camera as he brandishes his trophy and gold medal for winning the slam dunk side competition of the International Basketball Federation or Fiba 3×3 Under-18 World Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The son of former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) superstar Benjie Paras beat 6-foot-7 Antonio Morales of Spain and 6-5 Demonte Flannigan of the United States in the final round of the event. To secure his win, the 16-year-old Kobe leaped over a teammate who was in a motorcycle and shot a one-handed dunk.
The 6-5 Kobe, whose father was known as the “Tower of Power” and is the only PBA player in history who won Rookie and MVP awards on the same year, had earlier grabbed the Fiba Asia 3×3 championship in May with teammates Arvin Tolentino and Prince Rivero.
A video of Kobe dunking over the seemingly unprepared LeBron James during the NBA superstar’s Philippine tour in July also went viral, grabbing the attention of ESPN and Yahoo! Sports.