Basketball: Cameron foots it with the best

By PETER JESSUP

Tall Black Pero Cameron is coy about comments from the American and Lithuanian opponents regarding his ability to foot it with anyone, and is just enjoying the Olympics.

Cameron has been outstanding against the overseas teams, who have been surprised at his ability around the court and in the air, given his size.

After the Tall Blacks played the United States, Dream Team and Houston Rockets coach Rudi Tomjanovich approached Cameron and said he admired his game, thought he was a good shooter, enjoyed watching him and looked forward to meeting him again in the future.

Cameron, who has experience in the Malaysian and England leagues and is a stand-out with the championship-winning Auckland team in the national league, was taken aback.

"Who knows what to make of it," he said. "I was deeply flattered."

He hadn't thought about trying for a job in America but certainly would if the opportunity presented itself.

After a great team effort that pushed Lithuania all the way and a man-of-the-match performance for 14 points that saw coach Keith Mair and the bench clap him from the court, Cameron was humble.

"I'm just glad we're getting better every game. We've proved we deserve to be here. What we lacked was hard game preparation, we could have done with six to 10 games at this standard coming into the Games."