Basketball: NBA graduate just happy to be a Tall Black

By Peter Jessup

Sean Marks has his own fan club at the Toronto Raptors home basketball court but he will be performing in front of his most ardent supporters for the first time in five years when he plays with the Tall Blacks against Canada next week.

Marks is back home after his first season in America's National Basketball League, still in awe of the fact that he sits courtside with big-time stars like Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley. He has asked them for advice and in the main, they are happy to give it.

Though his game-time has been short this season - eight starts from 50 and most for just a few minutes - it is better than he expected. And the end-of-term reports from coaching staff indicate more opportunities to come.

"I'm trying to learn as much as I can, to keep this job as long as I can," he said on return to Auckland yesterday.

His bosses told him not to expect to get on court at all and most other 1998 draftees did not, instead being expected to sit on the bench and learn. That's hard when you're 23, but Marks accepts the deal.

"You're playing against 35-year-olds who've been 10 to 12 years in the league and know all the tricks of the trade. It's a wake-up call real quick, just as soon as you get a sharp elbow to the head," Marks said.

His life now, he said, was "wake up, go to the gym. Then weights, team training, videos. Go to sleep and you're still thinking about basketball."

Then there is the travel, sometimes three games in three cities over three days. It is draining physically and mentally, but he is having the time of his life.

But playing for New Zealand was the No 1 goal when he was at school on the North Shore. The last time he did that was for the under-18s five years ago before he went from the North Harbour Kings to a scholarship in California, so he is looking forward to hooking up again with old team-mates who are also now in the Tall Blacks.

Auckland captain Pero Cameron, who used to board with the Marks family in those junior rep team days, was at Sean's reception yesterday.

"You ready?" he asked his old buddy.

"Sure," Marks replied.

"You ready?" Cameron asked again, indicating how seriously they are taking the two-test series after last year's drawn series against the Canucks.

Then they arranged a sit-down so he could learn team offensive calls and some one-on-one with other Auckland-based Tall Blacks.

Marks is the only New Zealander to graduate to the world's No 1 competition but, humble and willing, said he would be trying to slot in and do what the team and coach Keith Mair wanted rather than trying to tell anyone what to do.

"I'm not going out to try and score 30 points a game - that's not my game and I'm not going to change my game."

Next year's Olympics remain a priority, though he is unsure how much of the Tall Blacks' build-up he will be able to take part in due to commitments with the Raptors.

The coaches have told him they are impressed with his form of 1998-99 and are expecting big things. So are the Toronto spectators, a solid group of whom now chant "Kiwi, Kiwi" when Marks is not getting a run.