Leasure To Show Magic
Tagged in: In The News, NBL
Murray Hills, Taranaki Daily News
Leasure may be his surname, but Taranaki’s second basketball import is not here to sit around.
Apart from today, that is.
And fair enough, it’s his 24th birthday.
Jack Leasure arrived this week after signing with Taranaki for this year’s National Basketball League.
“I met the guys at practice soon after arriving and my first impression is that things are looking good,” he said yesterday. “I don’t know much about the New Zealand league, but we’re hoping to do some positive things this year.”
Leasure, a shooting guard, joins fellow American Demarshay Johnson as Taranaki’s imports for the season.
After graduating from Coastal Carolina University in 2008, Leasure played professionally in Austria last year, living in Kalgenfurt.
“My strength is my outside shooting. I averaged about 15 points per game for the season and scored about 42 per cent from the outside,” he said.
So how did he pick up a contract in Taranaki? “I kind of got lucky. Coach [Angelo Hill] got in touch with my agent and it was a good fit for me,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful country and everyone is so friendly. It’s nice to get some sunny weather.”
Hill said he’d had a change of heart on his imports.
“We were originally going with Demarshay and Jeremiah [Boswell]. But things changed and we needed another shooter.
“No disrespect to Jeremiah, he’s a good player, but Jack had better credentials. He’s an intelligent basketballer and can shoot the ball.”
Hill said Johnson was to arrive in New Plymouth on Monday.
“We’ve got the guys out earlier, so we can spend a month together as a team. We’ve got a tough draw with our first three games against teams who made the playoffs last year.”
“It’s a tough start [Canterbury, Waikato and Nelson], but we’ve got to play them sometime.”
The two imports, Tall Black Jeremiah Trueman, former Auckland Stars point guard Tyrone Davey and Aaron Nowell give Hill a solid starting line-up, with Alex Wastney, Todd Fisher, Tim Cleaver, Dylan Wineera and the Paurini brothers, Josh and Eli, providing depth.
