Basketball: Pero just playing for time

Pero Cameron is recovering from knee surgery. Photo / Getty Images

Tall Black legend Pero Cameron refuses to be drawn regarding his involvement in the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey and maybe a repeat of that thrilling 2002 campaign.

"I've got a lot of boxes that need to be ticked for me personally before I can focus on being part of the Tall Black programme in Turkey next year," said Cameron, recovering in his Gold Coast home after surgery a week ago for a meniscus tear in his right knee.

"My focus right now is rehabbing the knee and getting back on court in five weeks and being part of a pretty exciting Gold Coast team here in the Australian NBL.

"I then have player-coaching commitments with the Saints in Wellington in the New Zealand NBL and if I prove myself to the Tall Black coaching staff, hopefully I will be in the Tall Black team, preparing for Turkey."

Cameron is adamant that he can take nothing for granted in terms of his future involvement with the Tall Black programme after watching a relatively inexperienced team defeat Australia earlier this year.

The Tall Blacks won the 2009 FIBA Oceania Championship and the Al Ramsay Shield on a better points for and against aggregate after drawing a two-game series with the Australian Boomers.

"In any series, it's the team that makes those little subtle changes in terms of where to attack and defend - and that's something the Tall Black coaching staff of Nenad Vucinic, Chris Tupu and Dillon Boucher did between the first and second game.

"They did this with a mixture of experienced and inexperienced players and they all stood up to be counted.

"Mika Vukona was a relentless bundle of energy throughout that series, as was Kirk Penney. The new players like Alex Pledger and BJ Anthony, both young post players, were simply outstanding," Cameron said.

He was not surprised at the calibre of opposition the Tall Blacks will face in Pool D in next year's FIBA World Championships. Defending champions Spain, Lithuania (ranked 6th in the world), France (15th), Canada (19th) and Lebanon (24th) will play the 13th ranked Tall Blacks.

"Come world championship year, you can take nothing for granted at the make-up of any of these teams, as they all have access to talent.

"Spain is fully loaded with great players who are top performers in Europe. We've had a bit of luck recently against Lithuania but they've being building for this tournament for a few years. France plays a great style of basketball and Canada can call on a lot of experienced guys.

"Lebanon is a little unknown but I do know from talking to a few players that they have a good standard of basketball in their professional league."

Cameron has no doubt that the Tall Black team will have all the Pool D opponents heavily scouted before the start of the tournament.

Vucinic is an outstanding tactician, and skilled at thoroughly scouting opposition teams; then preparing his Tall Black team to punch well above their weight.

A Tall Black appearance at the FIBA tournament would be a fitting farewell for Cameron who intends to retire from international basketball.

After all, Cameron and a team of international "no-names" took the 2002 world championship by storm - powering through the tournament, making the semifinals, eventually finishing fourth.

Cameron made the team of the tournament alongside a team of NBA superstars and believes nobody will ever again take the Tall Black programme lightly in international basketball.

Included in that tournament team were stars like Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic, Yao Ming and Manu Ginobili.

"We proved that with a thorough preparation and a team committed to playing good team basketball that you can compete against anyone," Cameron said.

Grant Chapman, Basketball New Zealand's communications manager, has already started preliminary inquiries with other international associations regarding possible opponents for the Tall Blacks in 2010.

"A lot of the countries playing in Turkey have held back their tournament plans for next year until after the draw came out," he said.

"Not a lot of these countries really want to play each other if they're going to be in the same pool in Turkey.

"After talking to Nenad, it seems the Tall Blacks will look to base themselves in Europe for a period of time and probably play some mini-tournaments there.

"They'll then shift to Turkey and have plenty of time to acclimatise to the local conditions."