Three basketball playing cousins will represent their family and their small school, Mana College, at the 2021 Steven Adams invitational next week.
Kawharu Hippolite, Levi Ware and Nathaniel Salmon of Ngāti Toa grew up playing together, and are excited to be three of the 40 players selected to attend the camp.
“Yeah we’re pretty stoked being from the same whānau, and our family is pretty happy for us as well, to be playing at the highest level so I think it will put our abilities to the test,” Salmon says.
Basketball is becoming increasingly popular among rangatahi but it is rare to have more than one player from one school attend the camp, let alone three.
“It's cool that we are from a small school too,” Ware says.
“Schools with heaps of kids only have one and we have three out of 500 kids.”
The boys are finishing up their last year of high school, and although the NZ NBL seems like the natural move, for Hippolite, that is merely a backup plan.
"If I don't get a scholarship to a university, then yeah I will definitely look to the NBL next year."