NZ basketball day

With the surprising sight of New Zealand basketballer Sean Marks starting for the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA today (unfortunately for Sean, he wasn't overly active in his 17 minutes of court-time), it seemed like a good opportunity to focus on basketball news from across the ditch.

Click on the titles below to read the full stories ... choice bro

Hornets beat Pacers on Paul's late 3 - NBA - Yahoo! Sports
Sean Marks (2 points, 3 rebounds) started for West.


'Money time' for Penney in MVP drive - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
By MARC HINTON - Sunday Star Times

The smart money around the Australian National Basketball League is that by season's end the New Zealand Breakers shooting guard, known rather obviously as KP, will have a new name - MVP.

Kirk Penney, say the pundits, is a short-priced favourite to succeed Melbourne Tigers big man Chris Anstey as the league's premier player. Already the Kiwi has won two of the three player of the month awards up for grabs, and looks unlikely to be pipped in the contest for the season's top individual honour.

Yet if the Breakers don't push on and finish off their groundbreaking NBL season with at least an appearance in the best-of-five final series, the game's highest individual accolade will likely go elsewhere.

MVPs get their team to finals: that's a given.


Breakers ready and waiting for Tigers - New Zealand's source for sport, rugby, cricket & league news on Stuff.co.nz
By MARC HINTON - Fairfax Media

Oscar Forman says the Breakers have nothing to fear against the Melbourne Tigers despite the high stakes of this week's back-to-back matchup against the red-hot defending NBL champions.

The Tigers, who have won four straight games since undergoing a personnel makeover, meet the Breakers at the North Shore Events Centre on Thursday night, then host the Kiwis just 48 hours later in a double-header that has major playoff repercussions.

The Breakers (16-7) are one loss behind the table-topping South Dragons (18-6) and in turn are one better than the advancing Tigers (15-8). With all three teams playing each other over the next week or so, that scenario could change markedly as the regular season hits the business end.