Bulls' Mokoka's arrival was delayed by trip to Mexico
Bulls guard Adam Mokoka was late to training camp because he had to make a quick trip to Mexico City.
It's all part of the process to renew his visa, since Mokoka is a French native. He had to leave the country to get it done and Canada wouldn't work because of its COVID quarantine policy, so he chose the next-closest country.
"So I had to go to Mexico for a week and it took a couple more days to get my visa back so that's why I was late for the training camp," he said after Saturday's shootaround. "Paris was just too far."
Mokoka only had a few days of practice, but was called on to play 17 minutes in Wednesday's season-opening loss to Atlanta. One reason he played was because Tomas Satoransky, Garrett Temple and Denzel Valentine were unavailable for various reasons, and also because Mokoka is a good defender and the Bulls were struggling in that area.
"Yeah, coach came to me at shootaround and told me just to be aware, because I was going to play," Mokoka said. " I don't really feel behind because all my teammates helping me and the coach too for all the plays, on defense, offense, what we have to do, where I have to be. They all helping me to be what I've got to be so I feel ready."
This is Mokoka's second season as a Bulls' two-way player. The 6-foot-5 defender appeared in 11 NBA games last season and had a couple of bright moments. He scored 15 points against New Orleans, then guarded Dallas' Luka Doncic in the fourth quarter of a Bulls' victory on Mar. 2.
Mokoka also delivered a near triple-double with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists for the Windy City Bulls on Mar. 8. There's been no official announcement yet about whether Windy City will participate in a proposed G-League bubble season.
"My goal is really help my teammates as much as I can," Mokoka said. "We're all trying to win, we're all trying to get better. I'm trying to get better every day. I worked on my shot a lot, my ballhandling. I watched a lot of film (over the summer) and like I said, I was trying to get better in all aspects."