Basketball: Big forward emerges as rising star

Mika Vukona forced his way into contention. Jeff Brass / Getty Images

There has been a significant lift in performance from several Breakers players towards the end of the ANBL season but it's hard to go past Mika Vukona as "most improved".

The Fijian-born forward has made his mark on the Australian league and some of its better-known players in more ways than one, impressing with both his energy levels and his willingness to play it hard and physical.

He's drawn the ire of opposition coaches for his head-hunting approach but he's not concerned. His coach, Andrej Lemanis, admits it's a worry sometimes, but that he'll take the energy Vukona delivers every time and try to work on refining the outcomes.

"I started with brute strength when I came into the league but I like to think I'm playing smarter now," Vukona said this week. The team were still on a high after the win over Lemanis' old side, Townsville.

Lemanis admits Vukona has been the surprise package of this season.

"I didn't know anything about him when I came here. Once I worked him out and offered him a contract he was going to be the 10th man, looking to the future."

That's a learning role, a player who comes on for a short time at the end of the game when all is lost or all is won and it doesn't matter.

"He did so well at practice that he forced me to put him in games. He played so well in those games that he forced me to give him more time - I got more than I expected."

Vukona wants more time.

"He has to understand that he's the rookie. I want to see him go back to the New Zealand league and continue his improvement. So when he comes back to us next season he's still continuing to advance."

Vukona is excited at the prospect. He goes from junior at the Breakers to senior at the Nelson Giants where he has had five seasons already and is also familiar with Giants coach Nenad Vucinic, the Tall Blacks assistant coach, after being called into the national camp this year. That was clearly also with an eye to the future.

"The Breakers have given me a good foundation to push on into the Tall Blacks and that's my aim this year," Vukona said.

Now fully professional after seasons of struggling with training, starting a degree in social work and making ends meet as a builder, he is now able to focus on basketball.

He's a free agent at the end of the season but the club is clear that it wants to keep him.

"Why would we want to put all that work into him to give him skills that he takes elsewhere?" Lemanis said.

Vukona: "I want to stay."

A deal is imminent.

He's excited by what he has learned this year and also at the prospect of filling obvious holes in his game. His three-point shooting is 100 per cent but he's tried just three so an outside game is something to work on.

Most of his field goals come from lay-ups and he's working on expanding his range of shots and improving his 32 per cent free-throw percentage.

"The coaches say all the mechanics of it are right so it's a mind thing."

The 23-year-old has felt his confidence growing and is much more comfortable in the big league than he was last year.

"We play hard in practice, it's physically tough in games but the hard trainings prepare you well."

He's not intimidated by the bigger and more experienced Australian forwards. "I hate losing to Aussies."

The way he throws himself about the court has at times provoked a response from the referees and his 109 fouls for the season is an impressive stat.

He has realised there is no point arguing with the officials. "They watch you more. If you're in their face all the time it doesn't help your case."

Vukona's parents Clem, a Fijian, and New Zealander Marianne, left Suva at the time of the first coup when he was 5.

He has three sisters at polytech in the South Island and a brother who is a lawyer in Invercargill. His parents have settled in Tauranga.

He lives with teammate Lindsay Tait, an extension of a new brotherhood that has enveloped the Breakers after the hard times and recriminations of last season.

"There is a culture there now, the last two years there hadn't been," he said.

"The development players are not isolated any more.

"When things were bad Andrej and Paul [captain Henare] were always positive - even in the worst times they'd be optimistic that if we worked hard we would get results. Now we're seeing that."

Vukona felt a big change in the team's confidence after a boot camp in December, when the team had a two-week game break.

"It was a kick in the backside, we thought we were playing like a team but we weren't. Guys thought about their contribution - now the emphasis is on getting an extra pass, getting more space for the shooter. Our defence is more confident and more capable."

Vukona is looking forward to showing leadership at the Nelson Giants in the domestic league then bringing further confidence to his Breakers' game in the 2006-07 season.

"Definitely no second-year syndrome, that's the goal," he said, well aware of how quickly shining stars can fade.


Mika Vukona

* Born May 13, 1982 Suva, Fiji
* 198cm 97kg forward.
* New Zealand representative at under-16, under-18 and under-20.
* Nelson Giants 2000-02, Manawatu Jets 2003, Nelson 2004-05 and signed 2006.
* Joined the Breakers development squad 2004.
* 8 ANBL games 2004-05 averaging three minutes.
* 39 games 2005-06 averaging 18 minutes.
* 189 points, 241 rebounds, 109 fouls.