US next stop for one of our tallest

By Vanessa Bidois

HUNTLY - John Thocolich has cheated death to score a shot at the hoop of basketball fame.

A pituitary tumour left the Huntly teenager towering 2.23m (7ft 4in) in a size 23 boot. With the tumour removed he has won a scholarship to play basketball in the United States.

The 18-year-old's phenomenal height nearly cost him his life after the tumour was discovered deep in his brain, affecting the pituitary gland that produces the growth hormone.

"He's an absolute miracle," said his doctor and manager, Dr David Gilgen. "I mean, three years ago, he was going blind. And all we were trying to do was save his sight and give him a life."

The modest young Mormon is slightly shorter than New Zealand's tallest recorded man, Marton-born Patrick Hogan, who is 2.25m (7ft 5in) tall.

According to Maori legend, however, the tallest man was Kiharoa of Ngati Raukawa and Ngati Whakatere, who is said to have measured twice the height of the average man.

By his early teens, Thocolich had sprouted to 2m and it was then that Dr Gilgen told him he should play basketball.

"He thought it was a bit of a sissy game and he would rather play rugby league. But I kept my tabs on him."

In 1997, Thocolich enrolled at basketball-crazy Church College near Hamilton, but was nodding off to sleep in class and breathing with difficulty. A brain scan picked up the tumour.

"It contributed to a huge amount of growth hormone that made him grow really quickly," Dr Gilgen said.

"His feet grew, his hands grew, he grew. But he didn't grow like a beanpole, more like everything grew."

He had a series of operations to remove the tumour and now sports a large scar on his skull.

Thocolich, who leaves next month to take up a two-year scholarship at the Salt Lake Community College in Utah, said the opportunity was a dream come true.

Dr Gilgen's brother-in-law, former New Zealand basketball representative Tony Smith, who is based in Salt Lake City, will keep an eye on him.