I caught up with Otago Nuggets forward Sam King on Saturday.
The former Breakers Academy player was in Auckland helping the Otago Nuggets secure an important 96-93 road win against the James Blond Super City Rangers at Trusts Stadium.
King is enjoying his sixth man role for the Nuggets. Having had a break from the game in 2013 to rehab “a recurring back problem that I have had over the last few years and concentrate on studies at Otago University” he has returned with form and fitness improved.
It is immediately clear King has shed weight and not just a little. In fact he has lost 23kg and the new slim line edition is playing some good basketball as a result. His early season NBL form was excellent, highlighted by a career high 22 points against the Canterbury Rams. That good early season shooting form has dropped away a little of late but he is still enjoying his ‘ball’ under the coaching regime of Mark Dickel. “He is so competitive, he brings intensity to every night to training sessions”.
King arrived in Auckland in 2009 to prepare for the Under 19 World Championships to be held in the City of Sails later that year. A stand out at Otago Boys High School, King transferred to Rangitoto College for his final school year and remained a member of the Breakers Academy for three years.
His strong showing at the Breakers helped him nail down a spot in the NZ team at the World Champs and also gain a place in the Harbour Heat NBL team during their 2010 NBL campaign.
The World Championship team contained a number of players currently paying in the NBL – Richie Edwards (Canterbury Rams), Morgan Natanahira (Southland Sharks), Brooke Ruscoe (Nelson Giants), Dion Prewster (Wellington Saints), Josh Bloxham (Nelson Giants) plus Rob Loe recently graduated from Saint Louis University.
King is unlikely to gain Tall Blacks selection like former Under 19 teammates Loe, Bloxham and Ruscoe. However, at just 23 years of age and already in his fourth season in the NBL, King looks certain to have many more good seasons ahead of him, just as long as that dodgy back doesn’t curtail his progress.
LACEY LOWDOWN 