Basketball: Hawks swingman Tolovae in equation for international tour

Hawks swingman Tony Tolovae's diligence is paying off after he was selected for the NZ Select Team tour of China next month. Photo / File

Tall Blacks coach Paul Henare has named swingman Tony Tolovae in a New Zealand Select Team to travel to China to play in an invitational tournament next month.

It's the first national call up for the Taylor Corporation Hawks basketballer who is in his debut season with the struggling Hawke's Bay franchise team in the National Basketball League (NBL).

"He's put a lot a lot of hard work and he's developed as a player in this league for the past couple of years," said Hawks caretaker coach Benny Hill of Tolovae whose athleticism and scoring prowess takes the heat off Hawks co-skippers Jarrod Kenny and Everard Bartlett after the swingman typically scored an equal game-high 21 points with Nelson Giants' Finn Delany (also in the select team) on May 6 at the PG Arena in Napier.

"It's a good opportunity for him to show what he has and try to get that elusive Australian contract," said Hill of the 24-year-old Auckland-born, Sydney-based player.
Tolovae, a 2016-17 Sydney Kings player who had a stint with Illawarra Hawks the season before, is in his fourth NBL season here after a year each with the defunct Otago Nuggets and the Canterbury Rams.

Hawke's Bay shooting guard Alonzo Burton, a former Hawk but playing with Taranaki MountainAirs this season, is also in Henare's mix.

Ditto former Hawks shooting guard Luke Aston, who now plies his trade with Southland Sharks.

NZ Select have an average age of under 23 and no players will be termed "regular Tall Blacks" just yet.

"One of the things I like about this group is the relative inexperience in international basketball for most of these guys. That's not usually something to get excited about but I like the fact that these guys will be tested and taken out of their comfort zones," says Henare.

"Seeing how they react to that is what excites me because then you'll see who can operate under pressure at this level. The guys who have played in the NBL have all had very good seasons.

"That's just part of the reason for their selection though, they all earned positive endorsements from their coaches as to their character and commitment to the game on and off court, which is important when we have such high standards within our environment," he says.