Basketball: Books come before hoops for Ed Book

Palmerston North Jets basketballer Ed Book is unlikely to play for the Tall Blacks this season, even though he has been named in the national squad for next week's training camp in Christchurch.

Book will not attend the week-long camp. Instead, he will remain in Manawatu to concentrate on his primary schoolteacher studies.

Book and former Jets player Willie Burton were to contest the one spot allocated to naturalised players under International Basketball Federation rules.

However, Book is mid-way through a two-week-long practical course at Bunnythorpe School as part of his teaching diploma and has decided to forego the camp to concentrate on his studies.