Nelson Giants

Nelson Giants
Leagues	New Zealand NBL
Founded	1982
History	1982-
Arena	Trafalgar Centre
Location	Nelson, Tasman, New Zealand
Team colors	Navy Blue, White, Blue
President	James King
Head coach	Chris Tupu
Championships	3 (1994, 1998, 2007)
Website	www.Giants.co.nz/home.aspx
Uniforms
Home Away

The Fico Finance Nelson Giants are a basketball team that play in the National Basketball League in New Zealand. Their home games are played at the Trafalgar Centre (aka The Hangar) in Nelson.

One of the perennial powerhouses of the NZNBL, the Giants have made the playoffs in nine of the last ten seasons. In that time they made the finals five times. The Giants have won the championship three times in their history, in 1994, 1998, and 2007.

The Giants are led by Head Coach Chris Tupu, and his Assistant Lance Toma. Gary Williams is the team's manager. Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vučinić is the owner and a former coach of the Nelson Giants and holds the NZNBL record for most wins. The team is currently led by Tall Black Mike Fitchett, and their roster also includes Phill Jones and Mika Vukona. Each team is allowed two non-Tasman imports and for the 2008 season they are Mike Harrison and Jamil Terrill. In their title winning 2007 season American Josh Pace (Syracuse University) lead the team in scoring and was the league MVP.

The Giants have a loyal fan base, which is cheered on by a group of local hooligans known as the Nelson Giants Wannabes.

Current Roster

# Pos. Player Height 6 Zeb Lovell (YKP) 7 SG Darryl Jones 1.93m 8 PF Michael Karena 2.04m 10 SF Sam Dempster 1.98m 11 PF Bronson Beri 2.04m 12 Aaron Dempster 13 SG Phill Jones 1.96m 14 PF Mika Vukona 1.98m 15 PG Michael Fitchett 1.86m 20 PG Chris Duthie 1.85m 21 PG Josh Bloxham 1.84m 22 PG Tom Ingham 1.88m 31 PG Ben Wright 1.81m 55 SF Rod Grizzard 2.03m

2011 Management

Coach: Chris Tupu
Assistant coach: Lance Toma

Notable former players

• Josh Pace
• Ed Book
• Jeremiah Trueman
• Ian Cathcart
• Jacob Holmes

External links

• Giants Official Website