Clifton Bush III Bush models his game on retired Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA title-wining player with the LA Lakers, whose poster adorns the wall in his bedroom. Photo/Duncan Brown
Clifton Bush III Bush models his game on retired Kobe Bryant, a five-time NBA title-wining player with the LA Lakers, whose poster adorns the wall in his bedroom. Photo/Duncan Brown
Remember that lanky lad popping, locking, breaking and gyrating to pop music during intervals at the height of the Hawks' National Basketball League campaign in the past few years in Napier?
Well, Clifton Bush III has well and truly moved on from the groovy entertainer who wowed the Pettigrew-Green Arena faithful to a lean, but not necessarily mean, basketballer of substance these days.
"The girls don't go for that sort of thing any more," says the jovial 16-year-old who has been invited to the three-day Aon New Zealand under-17 boys' trials from today.
The Year 12-bound Napier Boys' High School pupil, who is under the tutelage of father and former Hawks captain and assistant coach Clifton Bush II in the Hawke's Bay age-group ranks, is among 75 female and male young talent from throughout New Zealand who have been invited to participate in the February National Selection Camp at the Pulman Arena in South Auckland.
The trials, which includes the Junior Tall Blacks (U19s), are the first of three Basketball New Zealand camps for the year that high performance manager Leonard King has engineered.
"As part of their long-term development, the athletes will be exposed to our National Style of Play, have their individual skills assessed and be tested as we prepare to select our national teams for this summer's U19 Men's World Championship and the U17 Oceania Championship," says King, who will have the assistance of Rosmini College coach Matt Lacey.
The U17 boys and girls will prepare for the Oceania Championship in Noumea, New Caledonia, from August 19 to 24.
The Junior Tall Blacks will take on the world's best on the island of Crete in Greece from June 29 to July 7.
They qualified for the Fiba World Championship after winning silver at the U18 Asia Championship in August last year.
It's Bush III's first invite to a national age-group level. Surprisingly he hasn't made the cull in any other age groups despite representing the province since he was 9 as a Port Ahuriri Primary and Tamatea Intermediate pupil.
"It's a pleasure to be named with these talented men," says the well-mannered teenager.
"I'm surprised I didn't make the trials or anything like this before [at national level] so it's an honour to be named in there."
The Bay under-17 representative is the sole contender from the province among a squad of 22 while Ashleigh Poi, of Napier Girls' High School and sister of Silver Fern midcourter Kimora, is the sole Bay flag flier in the girls' age-group equivalent but she has opted out "due to other commitments".
Bush is determined to slip on that black-and-white singlet to represent New Zealand.
However, in a sobering self-analysis he believes he missed the national age-group muster over the years because he was a tad shy in the confidence department.
"I was definitely holding back," he says.
Primarily Bush confesses he was "just a skinny" bloke who didn't measure up when the physicality stakes went up a few notches at the height of battles.
He has beefed up lately, thanks to mother Christina's steak and pork dinners although American-born father has been taking him to the gym for some strength and conditioning from last year and the teen now lives there.
Bush has since boosted his weight from 60kg to 75kg to hold his ground on the courts as a versatile player who can assume the mantle of point guard to a power forward.
His parents won't accompany him to the trials, following on from issuing him the licence to travel to Melbourne, Australia, by himself for about six weeks recently for Melbourne Magic in the club ball under-18 division, thanks to veteran Taylor Corporation Hawks shooting guard Everard Bartlett.
The stint also has helped Bush build his New Zealand-heavy portfolio.
"They are definitely more competitive than what we have here in New Zealand so it's been building me up and giving me more confidence in my ability to play.
"It was 39 degrees and there was no AC [air-conditioning system] in the gym," he says of Australia which is in the grip of a heat wave which has moved down to parts of New Zealand this week.
Clifton Bush II mentors his teenage son, Clifton Bush III, but the latter has no intentions of taking on the persona of his father to the basketball courts any time soon. Photo/file
For the record, Bush isn't in the mould of his old man who had a penchant for getting under the skin and inside the head of his opponents.
