Basketball: Shot in arm for Tall Black's NBA dream

Ground-breaking New Zealand basketballer Sean Marks has had his United States National Basketball Association (NBA) dream revived by the unfashionable Los Angeles Clippers franchise.

Marks, the first Kiwi to play in the NBA, has been added to the Clippers roster for the summer pro league which started yesterday in Long Beach, California.

The two-week long league is effectively an off-season trial for recently drafted rookies, promising former college players and free-agents like 2.13m-tall Marks who came off contract with Toronto Raptors at the end of the just-completed NBA season.

Ten other NBA franchises have entered teams in the tournament, including a side from the champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Marks will be expected to play up to nine games at the tournament. If he impresses, he is then likely to be invited to the Clippers pre-season camp where a final decision on a contract will be made.

Melbourne-based NBA Australasia media and communications manager Marc Howard said Marks' chances of signing with the Clippers for the coming NBA championship looked bright.

The Clippers are short of big men with two of their incumbent centres, Derek Anderson and Maurice Taylor, now free agents. Howard said it was unlikely either would choose to stay with the Pacific Division hich had the worst record - 15 wins and 67 losses - in last season's NBA.

He said the Clippers were seen in the United States as the "joke team" of the NBA but believes that would have a flip-side for Marks.

If Marks is offered a contract, Howard is certain the 25-year-old Tall Black would be given far more court-time than he was given by Toronto.

- NZPA