Last year, Jack Salt became the only Kiwi to ever win a United States college NCAA Championship – the biggest prize in college basketball.
The 2.08m centre from Auckland will now do the basketball equivalent of a Caleb Ralph, Ron Cribb and Jack Goodhue by moving to Christchurch to take his game to a new level.
“He’s a big unit. They don’t grow on trees, there’s only a handful of big dominant New Zealanders floating around, so it’s absolutely a coup to have Jack want to continue his career with us,” said Canterbury Rams coach Mick Downer.
After captaining Virginia to their first ever championship in April, Salt went on to play two games for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Summer League in July.
He was then due to play professionally for Polish club Trefl Sopot. However, Salt was unable to take the court after coming down with glandular fever.
Salt returned to Auckland and has been under doctor’s orders to eat healthy, drink water and sleep.
He’s followed the guidelines for the past five months and for the past five weeks has been back to feeling normal.
“For me it wasn’t really the energy, it was the dizziness," Salt said.
"I was sleepy for about two weeks, but then I got over that.
"It was just a constant feeling of being dizzy. It was hard to work out because I literally felt like I was drunk when I was working out,” said Salt.
“I’ve been working out for over a month now and had no setbacks, so I’m feeling good.”
Salt won’t be the first Virginia product to play for the Rams. Last year one of the franchise’s import spots was filled by Isaiah Wilkins – Salt’s former roommate.
Without knowing it at the time, Salt helped the Rams recruit Wilkins by telling him he had visited Christchurch and liked the city.
This time it was a role reversal which has helped Salt make the decision to move south.
"Isaiah is one of my best friends," he said.
"It helped having him tell me what Mick was like as a coach in terms of player development. He said the workouts he did were really good and I know Isaiah really well, I worked out with him for four years and if he’s saying it’s good I trust his judgement a lot,” said Salt.
“I haven’t been able to compete for eight months and I’m a competitor, so to be able to come into a team with a good coach and a good culture is exciting.”
“My goal is to win a championship for the Rams. I’m coming to better myself for sure, but I want to win.
Salt will travel to the United States this month to ramp up his training, before arriving in Christchurch on March 19. The Rams start their season against Taranaki at Cowles Stadium on April 11.
- Current confirmed Rams squad – Taylor Britt, Alex Talma, Jonathan Janssen, Shaun Bruce (import), Jack Salt.
