Basketball: Teenager's dream teams about to become reality

By PETER JESSUP

Life is about to take a big turn for teenager Lance Baker.

Fresh out of school, he is about to take off to the United States with the Tall Blacks development squad, confident as anything and excited about the trip, despite the obvious problems in the States.

"I've grown up watching on TV some of the teams we're going to play. I was a bit shaken when I heard the games we've got," the 17-year-old said of the forthcoming tour, which includes games against heavyweights Georgetown and Penn State.

It's still sinking in, but now he's getting his head around the task at hand. The 12 players on the development tour have been in camp on the North Shore since Sunday, coach Nenad Vucinic working to familiarise a young squad with the Tall Black plan.

For Baker, it's been a big learning curve, but one he had some easing into. From a Kaitaia family familiar with the hoop - his father, Jim, was a former player and is the present district representative team coach - Lance Baker was always tall and was thus earmarked for the game.

Tall Black head coach Tab Baldwin spotted Baker when on a coaching clinic in the Far North several years ago, spoke to his parents and the result was a family shift south.

Lance went to Selwyn College, where Baldwin's Auckland team were based, so he has been under the national coach's eye since he was 13.

He finished seventh form at Mt Albert Grammar, internal assessment allowing the trip to be made without interfering with schoolwork.

Stepping up from Auckland's division two team to the international preparation has been a challenge he needed.

"It's pushing me, making me work harder because the athleticism here is better and I'm enjoying it," he said.

Despite the family, including basketballing sister Jaimee, 14, telling him there's no pressure, that he doesn't owe them anything after the move, he feels he does.

"They always support me and have said they'll back me up whatever I decide, but I still feel I owe them a lot."

Critics rate the 1.88m (6ft 2in) - and still growing - guard as a star in the making, with the possibility of matching Tall Black Mark Dickel's workrate and captain Pero Cameron's longevity.

Cameron, at only 28, already has had eight years in the team. Baker proved his confidence with his new team-mates when he nominated himself as leader of the haka.

He has already made his family proud by making the New Zealand under-14, under-16 and under-18 teams for trips to Australia, winning MVP awards at all three age levels, going up to under-18 when just 15, and this year captaining that side.

"It was the right move," his mother Cheryl said of the family shift south from Kaitaia. They are pleased he's made the team for the US tour.

"We feel he'll be safe. He's worked hard for this and he deserves it."

The first team manager appointed, Andy Bennett, has had to stand aside for family reasons, the replacement being Tall Black senior and North Harbour Kings captain Brendon Cathie-Pongia.

The latter saw the appointment as a mark of respect for his leadership and role-model capabilities and said he was enjoying the "raw talent and energy in the squad."

Squad: Darryl Cartwright (capt), Lance Baker, Daniel Barritt, William Green, Lindsay Tait, Ben Valentine (all Auckland); David Hopoi (Waikato); Troy McLean (Wellington); Michael Fitchett, Damon Rampton, Mika Vukona (Nelson); Haydn Allen (Otago).

Itinerary: Nov 3, v University of West Virginia; Nov 5, v Virginia Commonwealth University; Nov 6, v Bridgewater College; Nov 8, v Georgetown University; Nov 9, v Maryland Eastern Shore; Nov 11, v Duquesne University; Nov 12, v Robert Morris College; Nov 13, v Penn State University; Nov 16-19, v Portugal, Angola and Romania in Porto, Portugal.