Rams import keen to return
Australian import Cam Gliddon has given Canterbury Rams fans a boost ahead of the National Basketball League finals.
The 29-year-old – a NBL MVP award contender – has confirmed he is keen to return next year.
Gliddon, who plays for the Brisbane Bullets in the Australian NBL, has been a major factor in the Rams reaching the Final Four playoffs at Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena this weekend.
The 1.97m shooting guard said he had been ‘‘late to the party’’ in terms of joining the Australian diaspora to the NZ NBL, but he has enjoyed the experience.
‘‘It’s been awesome. More than I could have asked for, to be honest, especially at the Rams,’’ Gliddon said after helping run a Rams’ school holiday coaching clinic at Cowles Stadium yesterday.
‘‘Everything’s really tight [at the Rams], everyone knows what they’re doing. They’ve got the right people in place; everything runs really smoothly, I’ve been very impressed with it.’’
Gliddon, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist with Australia in 2018, has also been impressed with the standard in the New Zealand competition.
‘‘The top five or six teams have been really great, obviously a couple of teams – Auckland and Manawatu have had a few troubles with their imports, but apart from that you get good games every week.
‘‘It’s really competitive and there are a lot of rivalries in the league that make it good too.’’
From Bunbury in Western Australia, Gliddon spent four years on a basketball scholarship at Concordia University in California. He then joined the Cairns Taipans in the ANBL, but had offseason stints in the Polish and Russian leagues.
New Zealand, he said, ‘‘has been a really good change for me. The Europe stuff for me didn’t go as great as I thought it would.
‘‘Coming over here, I guess because my overseas basketball journeys haven’t been great, I didn’t have high hopes, but it’s been amazing.
‘‘I’ll definitely look to come back next year, for sure.’’
Gliddon has been named on a shortlist of 10 players for the NBL’s MVP award – due to be announced at a league dinner in Christchurch tonight.
The contenders include Saints’ Tall Blacks guard Shea Ili, the Southern Huskies’ former Rams swingman Marcel Jones, a bunch of American imports and Gliddon’s Australian compatriots Nick Kay (Saints) and Rhys Vague (Nelson Giants).
Gliddon said the New Zealand league had a growing reputation as a good place to play in the Australian NBL off-season with his Rams teammate Emmett Naar (Illawarra Hawks) and Southland Sharks duo Todd Blanchfield (Illawarra) and Jarrad Weeks (the New Zealand Breakers’ Melbourne-point guard) also taking the opportunity.
‘‘A lot of guys have come over and done it. I think I was just late to the party. As the league grows bigger – and they’ve already got a Tasmanian team – there will be a lot more Aussies in the league.
‘‘People see this as a good league, a high-performing league and they want to be a part of it.’’
Over 3000 fans will watch the Rams clash with the Bay Hawks in Saturday’s semifinal with both teams backing up from a deadrubber game last week, which the Hawks’ won 77-71 in Napier.
Gliddon said he did not know if meeting each other so close to the Final Four showdown was ‘‘an advantage or a disadvantage’’, and suggested there may have been an element of cat-andmouse tactics.
‘‘It had been a long time since we played them, we played them real early in the season. They obviously had their new import [Brandon] Bowman who we didn’t play at the start.
‘‘They’re a different team. They probably didn’t show everything to us and likewise, we didn’t show everything to them.’’
Gliddon expected the Hawks would want to play ‘‘high scoring, and we want to really defend so it’s too different styles going up against each other.’’
Defensive grit and team togetherness have been key to the Rams returning to the Final Four after missing the cut last season.
‘‘Offensively, we haven’t been consistently putting high points on the board, but we can rely on our defence to keep us in games when the scoring dries up,’’ Gliddon said. ‘‘Hopefully, we have a game where we make all our shots and make good offensive decisions, but we can lean on the fact we play good defence.’’
The Canterbury Rams have an open practice at the Horncastle Arena from 11.5am to 11.45am today.
‘‘Everything’s really tight [at the Rams], everyone knows what they’re doing. They’ve got the right people in place; everything runs really smoothly, I’ve been very impressed with it.’’ Rams forward Cam Gliddon