Dave Ildefonso excited to play against former teammates, rivals in KBL 

By NIKOLE JAVIER

Dave Ildefonso is raring to make his debut with the Suwon KT Sonicboom as he officially begins his professional career in the Korean Basketball League.

The Ateneo star couldn’t play in Suwon’s 85-83 win over Rhenz Abando’s Anyang KGC and the 89-83 beating that followed from Ulsan Hyundai’s RJ Abarrientos last week due to some issues with his documents.

The 6-foot-3 forward is the latest addition to the growing Filipino players seeing action in the league, and Ildefonso is excited more than anything to suit up for Suwon and battle it out with his fellow Pinoy dribblers, some of which were his former teammates and rivals.

“I’m really close with most of the Filipinos like SJ Belangel, RJ Abarrientos and Rhenz Abando. I’ve been teammates with them a few times but SJ’s really the one I’m closest to. He was my teammate in Ateneo, so I’m excited to meet him and play against him. Rhenz Abando, I’ve known Rhenz since I was a kid, my dad and him have known each other since forever. So Rhenz is a great guy, he’s a great athlete, and he’s such a good basketball player. So I just wanna be able to compete with him,” said Ildefonso in a video posted by KT Sonicboom.

The 22-year-old Ildefonso, who towed Ateneo to its 12th UAAP title in his final year, was teammates with Belangel. The latter, on the other hand, jumped straight to the pro rank and kept aside his last eligible year.

Ildefonso though seemed to be settling just right in despite the language barrier which he plans on resolving with a couple of Korean classes to communicate better with his team and its fans.

“That is when the decision became easier to make. I decided to take the challenge of playing in Korea. I believe that my stint in Korea will not only benefit me but will give my family pride. It will be great for both our national basketball program and our professional league for young guys like me to experience first-hand the basketball culture of other countries, and eventually share that knowledge back home. It will be great for basketball fans too, they can watch as we try to prove we can play with the best in our continent,” wrote Ildefonso in his Instagram post.