NBL basketball: King of play-offs

Galen Young walks up to a chair, plants himself in it before trying to catch his breath after a short, sharp scrimmaging session in Napier.
His chest heaves, globules of sweat streaming down his 2.01m frame, not long after the boys ceased egging each other on at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, in Taradale.
"I've never missed play-offs for any team in the 12 years I've been playing professionally," Young drops in casually, as one would an alley oop, during the interview.
"I expect to do that this year too," says the latest American import signing for the HBS Bank Hawks as they begin their Bartercard National Basketball League (NBL) campaign with a 6pm tip-off today against the Manawatu Jets in Palmerston North after their opening match against the Taranaki Mountain Airs last night in Napier.
At 35, the power forward from the "basketball city" of Memphis, Tennessee, is the first to agree he's no spring chicken.
In fact, the 1999-2000 Milwaukee Bucks draft is the oldest Hawk in the squad this season.
So what does the veteran add to the Hawks' complex NBL matrix?
"I bring to this team all the intangibles - the experience, the heartaches and the celebrations all rolled into one," the African American says in a distinct southern accent.
The graduate from Pikeville College - an institution that Hawk centre Ben "Hammer" Valentine's attended too - qualifies his intangibles with the prerequisite of knowledge, something he believes rookie Hawks coach Paul Henare has a wealth of.
"When I was younger I used to go all out with just athleticism, which does help but when you get older ... you start to pick up the little things that it takes to win."
Young knows all about cutting the net off the rim, a season-ending ritual reserved for the victors.
His biggest triumph was the Continental Basketball Association title and last season he was part of the Perth Wildcats squad who won the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) crown.
Agent Barry Gibson, of Townsville, put the head coach/player for East Kentucky in the ABA league in contact with the Hawks franchise.
"We're not going to win every game but, as long as we come out hard, I really do feel like we have the pieces to compete this season," Young says, wiping his arms bearing inspirational tattoos in the old English and Japanese as a pool of perspiration forms on the arena's polished floor as a testimony to his dedication.
Leadership, he reckons, will be fundamental in tipping the scale in the Hawks' favour after the recent run of heartaches.
Come crunch time, when the Hawks find themselves a dog box or fox hole, their eyes will lock to see who is oozing confidence and belief in each other.
"We had a meeting the other day so I told the guys they couldn't just do things they do in the regular season and then expect to turn things up in the play-offs," Young says, adding breeding a culture of progression is vital.
Winning on the road is often a yardstick for success but Young hastens to clarify that in his years of making countless play-offs protecting the home turf took precedence.
"All championship teams hang their hats on defence. That's how I grew up playing basketball, that's what I was taught and that's what I believe in - defence."
The gospel, according to the bunker mentality, is a team who scores 100 points but fails to stop the opposition scoring 102 points will invariably lose.
"You don't have to score a lot of points to win basketball games. All you have to do is to stop them from scoring more than you do," Young says, emphasising shooting three-pointers and executing transitional attacks have their place but defence and snaffling rebounds supersede them.
A No 3 small forward in the States, here Young will assume the mantle of No 4-5 power forward.
Like any import he is mindful of the gladiatorial nature of their existence.
If the franchise stutters then the import is led to the sacrificial altar.
"It's a catch-22 situation and something you just have to live with," Young says.
"I've been doing it for a long time. Of course, it's not fair but then life isn't fair."
As long as he and fellow import playmaker Josh Pace fulfil their obligations, everything will be all right, win or lose.
The son of Leslie and Gladys Young grew up playing everything - football, soccer, baseball - but a 10cm growth spurt one summer put him strictly into the basketball court.
That is not to say he was ever the chosen one. Instead he toiled to chisel a career.
"In my college basketball team there were three All Americans and I wasn't one of them but I'm the only one still playing basketball.
"That's how I like to think of it and that's how I like to play it, you know, balls to the wall."
His father, a track-and-field athlete, savoured college football.
"I'm from a very athletic family. My uncle played semi-pro baseball, my brother was a decathlete in college and my sister ran track and played volleyball in college," Young says.
"My nephew is 16 and he's a big football guy so he's next in line in the family."
Young is forever indebted to the code that paved his way for a scholarship, considering his parents could not afford to put him through college.
"That was really exciting for me, just getting to college. Then the accolades started coming in so I thought I could do it for a living."
His college coach, Bobby Lukes, gave him licence to find a niche and believe in himself.
"That gave me the ammunition and the energy to prove to people that this is something that I can do."
Young has enjoyed the journey thus far, gracing every continent bar the Antarctica, allowing him to see things he marvelled on TV as a child.
Marriage appeals to Young's senses but for now he finds comfort in bachelorhood.
"Travelling like I do would be tough on a relationship or a family so it's something I haven't been blessed with, but who knows," says the man who is a cog in the American-wide Hoop Family wheel that helps youth overcome problems.
Coming off an unrepentant Northern Hemisphere winter, Young has been lapping up the Bay's balmy autumn weather and scenery but is mindful winter can have a sting, albeit nothing like the bone-chilling ones in the US.