KEY POINTS:
The hastily-thrown together Auckland Stars begin their NBL campaign against Wellington Saints at ASB Stadium tonight with some players hoping to break into the big time - and others hoping simply not to break.
The Stars' second import, 23-year-old American guard Danny Lambert, flew into town yesterday for his first professional assignment and hoping to put a horror two-year run of injuries behind him and take the first steps of a fledgling pro career.
Lambert will at least have the familiar face of fellow high school player Tashaan Forehan-Kelly around him as he tries to remember his other teammates' names tonight.
If Lambert's recruitment appears suspiciously like the Stars were running out of options with the season all but upon them and had a punt on a mate recommended by Forehan-Kelly, that's pretty much what happened.
Lambert has pedigree, though, having been named among the top 25 prospects in junior college in California before a succession of knee injuries torpedoed his senior years and sent him to the back of the queue for a pro job. How the young Americans fare against a Saints line-up of larger, grizzled veterans will be one of the intriguing facets of tonight's game.
Forehan-Kelly certainly talks a good game, saying he's not too bothered who his opponents might be tonight, or any night.
"I didn't really care who I played back home either," he said.
"If you get caught up in that stuff it can mess your game up. I don't care if you've played in the NBA, I don't care who you are or what you've done, I'm trying to beat you. That's my mentality."
As with Lambert, word of mouth certainly played a part in Forehan-Kelly - a former college room-mate of breakers import Brian Wethers - coming to these shores. Ditto injury, with a strained achilles suffered playing in the NBDL [the NBA's developmental league] sidelining him at a crucial stage of his career.
Continuing the theme of hospital ward-to-basketball court ball players, the US imports will be lining up alongside former league MVP Lindsay Tait.
With a shattered elbow that ruled him out of last year's final defeat by the Bay Hawks being quickly followed by a broken leg on his first European assignment in Switzerland, Tait will be hoping for better luck on his return to Auckland.
Certainly the Stars will need their 111-game veteran to stay healthy.
Judging by the tale of the tape, they'll be up against it tonight.
Tall Blacks Dillon Boucher (242 games) and Casey Frank (95) will provide the bulk of the experience but their numbers pale in comparison to the Saints, who have six 100-plus game veterans on their roster, headed by Brendon Pongia (239) and Terrence Lewis (237).
The Saints also boast a size advantage with former MVP Adrian Majstrovich (2.02m) and Mike Thompson (2m) both in the 2m club, although gargantuan import centre Nick Horvath (2.08m) is expected to sit out the match with a broken thumb.
By contrast, the Stars don't have a specialist big man at centre and have just the 2.03m Tall Blacks guard Casey Frank to match up on equal terms with the Saints' big men.
"The league as a whole isn't huge this year," Tait said. "I think we'll be trying to get Casey and the new fella [Lambert] to defensively match up with the bigs and then, on offence, play an up-tempo game and draw them out with our shooting."
After taking out the pre-season blitz tournament in Wellington, the Harbour Heat must wait until Sunday for their season-opener in Taranaki.
Round One
Tonight: Auckland Stars v Wellington Saints, ASB Stadium, 7.30pm.
Tomorrow: Bay Hawks v Taranaki Mountain Airs, Pettigrew Green Arena, 7pm.
Saturday: Otago Nuggets v Nelson Giants, Edgar Centre, 7pm.
Sunday: Waikato Pistons v Wellington Saints, Hamilton YMCA 2pm; Canterbury Rams v Nelson Giants, Westpac Centre, 2pm; Taranaki Mountain Airs v Harbour Heat, TSB Stadium, 3pm.
