Basketball: Tall Black 'old man' raring to do battle

No one has done it harder in the New Zealand basketball team's training camp in Wellington than Willie Burton.

The twice-a-day training sessions, the extra fitness work ... it's been tough for a 39-year-old trying to keep pace with team-mates little more than half his age.

"I'm playing every day with guys who are aged 20 or 25, and I'm an old man. To keep up with them I have to work a bit harder and use a few of my old tricks," Burton said.

"Age is only a number. My fitness is there. Practising twice a day is not my ideal thing, but I have to do it."

After 16 years of knocking around the National League, the 2.01m naturalised New Zealander was selected for the Goodwill Games team in Brisbane.

Tonight, he and Tony Rampton mark up as the Tall Blacks' big men against Australia in the first match of the Oceania world championship qualifying series.

Australia have a distinct size and height advantage over the New Zealanders, and Burton knows the best-of-three series is going to be more physically demanding then anything he has done before on court.

"Australia have got the size on us, but we have got the foot speed. We have to use that - run it a bit and play smart and take care of the ball. Just do the little things.

"It would have been nice to have had Sean [Marks] here, another big body. We've got Pero [Cameron], Tony [Rampton] and myself, but if one of us gets into foul trouble it makes things difficult.

"I understand it's been 23 years since we beat the Australians," Burton said. "I just want to be part of history.

"I didn't play as well as I would have liked [in Brisbane], but I think I'm ready now for this series."

And while he played for the Tall Blacks in Brisbane and scrimmaged against the NBA-laden United States team before the tournament, tonight's test in Wellington will bring another magical touch to Burton's mid-life call-up.

His wife, Suzanne, and children, Alonzo and Dominic, will get to see him wear the black singlet and silver fern.

"My wife and two kids are coming down from Napier. My boys, they watch every game and they give me play-by-play when I get home. 'Dad, you should have done this, you should have done that.'

"They're inspirational. I'm not only playing for my adopted country, but I'm doing it for my family."

Coach Tab Baldwin has omitted Daryl Cartwright, Troy McLean and Glen Newbold from the team.

Also missing will be United States-based players Kirk Penney and Marks, who are unavailable for the series.

Baldwin was forced to narrow his squad to the allowed 10 players from the 13 who trained this week.

"We know we don't have depth in the forwards so we just have to play intelligently," he said.

"Our depth is weighted to the strength of our guards and that's the way it's going to be with what we've got available."

Tall Blacks: Dillon Boucher, Willie Burton, Pero Cameron, Brendan Cathie-Pongia, Mark Dickel, Judd Flavell, Paul Henare, Phill Jones, Damon Rampton, Tony Rampton.

Australia: Axel Dench, Daniel Egan, Ben Knight, Brett Maher, Darryl McDonald, Scott McGregor, Ben Melmeth, Derek Moore, Matt Nielsen, Glen Saville.

- NZPA