Big man Temara enjoying his third season with Jets
Awinning season in Europe has Manawatū Jets big man Shane Temara energised for theNew Zealand National Basketball League.
The 2.06-metre-tall centre arrived in the country from Norway two weeks ago, back for this third season with the Jets, and his first outing was the team’s 92-82 loss to the Canterbury Rams last weekend.
‘‘It was our first real game together,’’ Temara said.
‘‘We hadn’t had many before that. We’re getting used to each other and seeing how we work.’’
Since then, he has been getting up to speed with the Jets’ systems as the team prepares to play the Otago Nuggets at the Arena tomorrow.
Temara, 26, has been in Norway since September playing for Baerum in Oslo, where they reached the playoffs and lost in the finals series to Gimle.
He said it was a good experience playing in Norway and being on the winning team.
He also enjoyed being back on the court after he burst his appendix while playing for the Jets last year and had complications that needed surgery.
He experienced further complications once in Norway and had to have another surgery.
Now he was enjoying playing under new Jets coachNatu Taufale and getting to know the new team members.
While Temara qualifies as a Kiwi, he is originally from the United States.
His father is from Auckland but his mother is American and they lived in Syracuse, New York.
When he was young, Temara had two years at North Texas University near Dallas and then played in the development league.
His brother Troy, who previously played for the Jets, is in Auckland and is not playing basketball.
Temara isn’t the only player learning the ropeswith the Jets.
US imports Rob Crawford and Zane Najdawi arrived last week, and a third import has also been announced so the Jets will finally be at their full complement.
American forward John Bohannon had his international clearance sorted and will play this weekend. Bohannon is a 2.10m-tall forward who has been playing in the NBA G League for the Maine Celtics.
Coach Taufale said the team had a big week of training and getting everyone ready, and theywere keen to play Otago.
Even though all the team’s imports had arrived, Taufale said he hoped his young charges who had held down the fort at the start of the seasonwould keep improving.
‘‘I hope that even by having the so-called heavy artillery, those guys will still contribute,’’ he said.
‘‘It was our first real game together. We hadn’t had many before that. We’re getting used to each other and seeing how we work.’’
Shane Temara, on last week’s 92-82 loss to the Canterbury Rams
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