Poignant summit for Casey as Tall Blacks face the USA
It’s the last lap of the hoops track for Tall Blacks veteran Casey Frank. But, as Marc Hinton finds out, he’s going to savour it.
FOR A dude from Ariziona who only became a Kiwi by chance, Casey Frank sure has a good handle on the essence of Tall Blacks basketball. It’s why he’s sacrificed so much to be part of a team he figured was something pretty special from the moment he first laid eyes on it.
Frank doesn’t need to be traipsing around the world with New Zealand’s national men’s team. He’s 36 and has a Masters of Business Administration. Once he finally hangs ’ em up – a day he now accepts is imminent – he will head on a career path that will probably pay him a lot more than he’s scratching out of the game as a journeyman pro in his adopted country.
But as he competes at his third World Cup with the Tall Blacks in Bilbao this week, and hopefully Barcelona next, Frank is savouring a poignant junction in his career that comes full circle with a pool match against the mighty USA.
It has not come easily for this likeable American who now resides in Auckland. He’s had to shake off a calf injury that threatened to derail his last hurrah. Then he had to come through a gruelling fiveweek head-to-head battle against good friend Nick Horvath for the sole naturalised player spot. Even then, he needed a bit of luck with the withdrawals of Steven Adams and Alex Pledger decimating the big-man quota.
But it’s been a process that he committed himself to once the Breakers lured him out of semiretirement in January, and which has grown in its appeal since. After first playing for the Tall Blacks in 2005 and racking up over 100 games since, he liked the idea of going out with one final bang.
‘‘You remember some of the wins, some of the losses, but mostly you remember the guys,’’ he says in reflection.
‘‘It’s being on a team like this filled with guys with no egos that get the best out of each other and genuinely want their team-mates to do well. It really is something special and you want it to last as long as possible.’’
The New York-born Frank first came to New Zealand in 2002 to play for the Auckland Stars in the Kiwi NBL, and soon became aware of a group dubbed the Tall Blacks winning their country’s collective heart with their underdog exploits on the global stage.
‘‘I played with and against a lot of those guys and to watch them play in that world champs [in Indianapolis, where they finished fourth], I was really impressed with the passion they had and I liked the type of people they were. I thought ‘I’d like to be part of that’.
‘‘Then you learn what’s important to the Tall Blacks, the
We both wanted it badly, but in the end it’s only one. Getting to the World Cup, you’re lucky if that happens once in your life. To think this is my third, it’s something I can be extremely proud about.
Casey Frank
Tall Black way we’re seen as competitors, the way when we go on court we don’t leave anything out there. It’s something I related to. It’s become very meaningful to me.
‘‘I’ve realised that there area lot of people back home who might not come out to games, but it means something to them you can come from New Zealand and perform on a world stage. It’s about proving something to yourselves about what kind of team you are.
‘‘You’re coming together for the pride of a nation, for the pride of your team-mates, and it’s a tough grind, four or five hours a day on the training court, the meetings, the time away from family. For you time stands still but for everybody back home it does not.’’
Frank remembers the night coach Nenad Vucinic gave him the nod for this campaign ahead of the equally capable Horvath.
‘‘It was possibly the worst game I’ve ever played as a Tall Black. I had six turnovers and Greece beat us by 30. Nick checked out and said ‘that could have been my last game as a Tall Black’. I looked at him and thought ‘me and you both, brother’.’’
Typically, Frank was as gutted for his mate as he was elated at his own chance.
‘‘I knew how much it meant to him, and I saw what he was putting his body through. We both wanted it badly, but in the end it’s only one. Getting to the World Cup, you’re lucky if that happens once in your life. To think this is my third, it’s something I can be extremely proud about.’’