Basketball New Zealand

Nick Horvarth (Photosport)

Sam Worthington, Dominion Post
Calling time out on his basketball career might turn out to be the best decision Nick Horvath ever made.

The Wellington Saints centre was burnt out last year after spending the majority of his 20s playing in both the New Zealand and Australian leagues while also representing the Tall Blacks.

Mentally and physically exhausted, a newly married Horvath disappeared from the basketball scene in 2009, travelling his homeland America with his wife, former Black Stick Sheree.

Batteries charged, the hiatus appears to have been a masterstroke and Horvath returned to the court with a vengeance on Saturday night, pouring in 29 points in a dominant opening win over the Manawatu Jets.

“The year off was the best thing for me,” Horvath said.

“I remember reading about Shane Warne when I was in Australia and he was suspended for that year [for testing positive to a banned substance].

“He said it was the best thing that ever happened to his career.

“And I can understand why. Because it just gives you time, you have no agenda and you can totally put everything into perspective.”

During the time off, Horvath had no idea whether he would play again.

“It showed me that when I’m not playing, life still goes on, you know. The people that are important to me are still there, I still have a life, I can do whatever I feel.

“It just takes a lot of pressure off performance and it’s not the entire world.

“Now that I’m back I’m just basically enjoying having fun.”

While in the States, Horvath and his wife had a house built for them in Palmerston North, where he is studying a graduate diploma in teaching at Massey University.

“We went to the US and I worked a little bit as a maths tutor because I knew I was going to be coming back and doing my diploma in teaching.

“We went to LA, Las Vegas, New York and Canada and just had a really good time. It was the first white Christmas for my wife. Halloween, did all of the things that she’d never done before so it was really fun.”

The 29-year-old said the decision to play again happened in stages.

“At first I didn’t want to look at a basketball, I didn’t want to watch basketball, I just wanted to get away and do different things. First I started watching basketball again, watching games. When I was home in the US there was college basketball on so I got interested in watching it.”

Horvath gradually got fit and the spark started to return.

“By the end I just thought `oh well, I’d kind of like to play again’.”

The 2.08m Horvath is commuting to a limited number of Saints trainings from Palmerston North though he will spend the next three weeks as a student teacher at Wellington College.

Saints chief executive Nick Mills had allowed some flexibility.

“He [Mills] was fine with the stipulations behind it and he’s been very good.

“It’s [the course] pretty full on. It’s from 9-4 or 9-5 every day plus the homework so it’s a fulltime deal. But I can’t wait to be a teacher. I’m going to be teaching physics so I’m quite excited about that.”

Despite an already crammed schedule, Horvath said he was committed to returning to the Tall Blacks this season as they eye the world championships in Turkey in August-September.

“It’s definitely my No 1 goal.”

The problem is Horvath will also require some leeway from national coach Nenad Vucinic in playing the warmup games.

“I’m just not sure I’d be able to, I’d fail my course. It could be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think my course will be quite flexible but it might have to be something where we meet in the middle.”

The Saints’ next game is against the Cougars in Christchurch tomorrow night.