Basketball: Seven foot wonder

Alex Pledger has had to rethink his goals in basketball. When he started playing a couple of years ago he was aiming for the stars. By his 16th birthday, he had reached them, having grown to 7ft 1in.

He's probably got about another inch to squeeze out of his frame, but he's got a whole lot more to squeeze out of his game.

The basketball gods, presumably in the interests of fair play, decreed that size should be inversely proportional to co-ordination. It would, after all, be grossly unfair if individuals were gifted size and talent in equal bundles.

They made no exception for Pledger, but through hours of hard work he has refined his game to punch well below his height. The sight of the giraffe-like Pledger moving with the grace and agility of a gazelle has piqued the interest of not only Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin, but a couple of colleges in the US, too.

"He's really athletic for his size," says Pledger's high performance manager Doug Courtney. "I first met him about a year and a half ago and there was this big, gangly kid in the gymnasium. I saw him and thought: 'Shucks'. I introduced myself and he was keen to play.

"To begin with, in the first three months, he was a normal tall guy - he didn't know where his feet were when he was running. Now he's very much an athlete and his co-ordination has improved.

"The bonus for him is that he is 7ft 1in but he runs like he's 6ft 1in. He can run up and down the floor and that is mostly what attracted me to him, apart from his size. He can do things just as quickly as a small guy could.

"A year ago I asked Tab Baldwin (Tall Blacks coach) to come down and have a look. Tab was very, very surprised at how well Alex moved on the floor and how well he shot the ball."

Even if they could, Basketball New Zealand would not be so stupid as to look this particular gift horse in the mouth. Players of Pledger's size and ability don't come along very often, and when they do, rugby normally gets its claws into them first.

But what excites most is the improvement Pledger has made in the last year since switching from Fraser High School to Hamilton Boys' High School.

"Everyone tells me that I am improving," says Pledger. "I think I am. It's pretty much only this year that I started playing seriously. At the national qualifying tournament when I was at Fraser, there was a fight when we played Hamilton Boys. I wasn't involved but it put me off a little bit.

"This year going along to the nationals and doing what I have done has made me realise how much I enjoyed it and what could actually happen."

Winning a place in the Olympic squad as early as 2008 is what could happen. Still only 16, Pledger will need to continue his exponential rate of improvement to make it to Beijing, and to do that he plans to head off to college in the US, either next year or in 2006.

"My high school coach is one of the best in New Zealand. He says if I continue to work like I am, that I could go to the next Olympics.

"I suppose every basketballer dreams of playing in the NBA. If the opportunity arises, I would like to. I suppose I'll find out whether I can in a few years."

The immediate challenge, however, looms on home soil, when he lines up for New Zealand Schools in a three-test series against Australia starting next Saturday. It's exactly the sort of intensity and pressure he needs to assess where he is at. Although he has made giant strides in the last 12 months, his shooting from both afar and close range needs to nudge past its current position on the scale of respectable towards commendable.

He says: "There are not many junior New Zealand teams that are favourites against Australia. We won a game last year and lost the other two by about 10 points which is OK. We think we are a better team this year, a bigger team anyway. In terms of my shooting, I am not great from long range. I am inconsistent. From around 15ft and close to the basket I shoot a respectable percentage."