NBL
Edgar Centre, tomorrow, 6pm
Craig Moller took a punt on basketball 10 years ago and it proved to be an inspired move.
Before that, well, the Otago Nuggets forward punted a football around.
The 31-year-old Australian appeared destined to have a career in the Australian Football League.
He was picked up by the Fremantle Football Club on a three-year scholarship when he was just 14 and was taken by the club in the 2013 rookie draft.
His career petered out a little and he switched to basketball in early 2016. He trained with the Sydney Kings and made his debut late in the season.
Moller had a toehold on the league and signed a three-year deal to play for Melbourne United in 2017.
He returned to the Kings for a couple of years and has played professionally in Germany. He holds a German passport, which is handy.
Moller was first sighted in New Zealand in 2019. He played for the Southern Huskies in the New Zealand National Basketball League.
He popped back up last year for the Taranaki Airs.
Nuggets fans will recall he had a big night out against their team at the Edgar Centre in June. He scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to help the Airs post a 92-78 win.
‘‘Yeah, it was a good day that one,’’ he said unapologetically.
‘‘Whenever I get the chance, I come back to New Zealand.
‘‘I just think I enjoy living here and the talent in the league is quite strong, especially around this time of year with the [overseas-based] Kiwis and Aussies like myself coming back into the league.’’
Moller is barely recognisable from the dreadlocked figure that shredded the Nuggets that night.
He had them chopped off for charity and raised more than $3000 for Redkite — a childhood cancer charity in Australia.
‘‘What they do is they support the families of children with cancer,’’ he said.
‘‘[People’s] lives get put on hold and they have to quit their jobs and things like that, so they’re spending all day at the hospital.
‘‘So what they do is they support those families, whether it’s paying electricity bills or things like that, that can help out, so not the kids exactly, but more for the family.’’
Moller had those trademark locks since he was 10 years old. It was very much part of his identity.
‘‘I probably hung on to them a bit long. I think I’m stubborn like that. Whenever someone would tell me to cut it, I’d just add another year on.’’
It was interesting timing for him. Not long after he was shorn, he signed to play in Iceland then came to a frigid Dunedin.
He could have done with the extra insulation.
He has, though, provided the Nuggets with some extra insulation inside the paint.
They have defended well, but other teams had started to exploit their weakness on the inside and Moller brings a bit more rebounding power.
But his big upside is his ability to score in threes.
He made a strong impact for the Nuggets on his debut.
Moller top-scored with 20 points to help the Nuggets halt a three-game slide with an 88-63 win over the Nelson Giants last weekend.
The Nuggets will be hoping he can have a similar impact tomorrow evening.
They are hosting the Southland Sharks, who are the best team in the league right now. And former Nuggets captain Sam Timmins is arguably the best player in the league.
Stopping him from getting to the hoop will be an enormous challenge.
The Nuggets actually beat the Sharks in the season-opener in Invercargill.
But the Southlanders have significantly strengthened their lineup since that encounter.
Caleb Asberry, Rylan Jones and Keylan Boone are major scoring threats as well as Timmins.
‘‘They’re on the top of the table for a reason, but we can’t solely focus on [Timmins] because they’ve got Boone, Jones and those guys.
‘‘But Timmins is so big he just commands attention.’’
At the other end, Moller hunts shots and plays more on the perimeter.
‘‘When I was younger and a bit faster, I was very much about getting to the ring, head down, get to the foul line.
‘‘But myself and basketball in general has trended towards shooting a lot more threes, no matter what the competition.
‘‘It’s just something I’ve worked on my whole career. I probably wasn’t the best three-point shooter early, but I’ve just continued to find confidence and that’s definitely what I say I would do really well at the moment.’’
