Tysxun Aiolupotea

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.83m
Born: 7 August, 2001
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Nayland College

Previous NBL clubs – Nelson Giants (2019)

Played for Nayland College at the 2019 Secondary Schools National Championships where he was 5th on the Tournament scoring list averaging 24.9 points per game.

Aiolupotea played 3 games for the Giants in 2019 – his final year at high school.

Riley Bensemann

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.93m
Born: 31 March 1999
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Waimea College

Previous NBL clubs – Nelson Giants (2015-2019)

Bensemann has worked his way through the Nelson system.
He is in his last year of study, through Canterbury University, to become a primary school teacher

Josh Bloxham

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.86m
Born: 6 February, 1990
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Nelson College
Highest Representative Honour: Tall Blacks Debut: 2012 (3 appearances)

Previous NBL clubs – Nelson Giants (2006-2014), Super City Rangers (2015 and 2016)

Bloxham played over 100 games during his nine seasons with the Nelson Giants. He also spent three seasons as a Development Player with the New Zealand Breakers (2010-2013). His time with the Breakers coincided with the club’s NBL three-peat.

Played for New Zealand at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Cup in Auckland.

Dane Brooks

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.90m
Born: 11 November, 1996
Junior Association: Taranaki
High School: New Plymouth Boys High School
Highest Representative Honour: Junior Tall Blacks (2014)

Previous NBL clubs – Taranaki Mountain Airs (2013-2015 and 2017-2019)

Averaged 12.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game for the Mountain Airs in 2019.

Won the New Zealand U19 high jump championship in his last year at NPBH.

Tommy Gargiulo

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Forward
Height: 1.95m
Born: 24 December, 1990
High School: Nelson College

Previous NBL Clubs – Rookie

Arguably the Giants biggest fan – he hasn’t missed a home game since 2009. 

One of the oldest players in NBL 2020 but one of the least experienced. Tommy didn’t play representative or school basketball. He switched from golf to basketball in 2014 to join the Giants wider training squad.
A sales rep for DB Breweries who is using up his annual leave post Covid lockdown to play in the league.

”I’m under no illusions that I’m well down the roster. Any opportunity to get on court will be a bonus.”

Tom Ingham

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.90m
Born: 19 June, 1993
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Waimea College

Previous NBL Clubs – Nelson Giants (2010-2011 and 2016-2019), Otago Nuggets (2012-2014)

Also a Nelson cricket representative, Tom Ingham has played 70 games for the Giants. He also played for Otago Nuggets whilst studying at Otago University.

Theo Johnson

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Small Forward
Height: 1.95m
Born: 26 November, 1995
Junior Association: Tauranga
High School: Rosmini College/Otumoetai College, Tauranga.
Highest Representative Honour: NZ U20 Team (2014)

NBL Clubs – Super City Rangers (2014), Manawatu Jets (2018) Wellington Saints (2017 & 2019)

Johnson won an NBL Championship with Wellington Saints in 2019, making 12 appearances.
Played for the U20 National Team in 2014, a year after representing New Zealand at the 2013 FIBA 3×3 U18 World Youth Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. At the 3×3 Championship he played alongside Finn Delany and Nico Buckrell.

Mike Karena

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Centre
Height: 2.06m
Born: 24 October, 1993
Junior Association: Tasman
High School: Nelson College
Highest Honour: Tall Blacks – Debut in 2016 (8 Appearances)

Previous NBL Clubs – Nelson Giants (2011 and 2012), Canterbury Rams (2016-2019)

Played at South Plains Junior College before transferring to Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio where he played NCAA Division I basketball for the Raiders for two years.

Spent two years playing in Spain during the northern hemisphere winters of 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Was a key member of the Rams team that were NBL semi-finalist in 2019 averaging 13.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.

Trained with the Cairns Taipans during the 2018-19 Australian NBL season.

Ryan Laumatia

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Guard
Height: 1.88m
Born: 1 September, 2000
Junior Association: Auckland
High School: Mt Albert Grammar School

Previous NBL Clubs – Hawks (2019)

Laumatia played two games for the Hawks in 2019, his first year out of high school.

Captained the Mt Albert Grammar team in his senior year (2018). He played all of his junior representative career for Auckland featuring in the 2017 U19 Grand Final when his team lost to Canterbury.

Currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts and Social Science at Auckland University.

Josh Leger

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Forward
Height: 2.03m
Born: 21 March, 2001
Junior Association: Auckland/Counties Manukau
High School: Mt Albert Grammar School

Previous NBL Clubs – Rookie

Leger was initially signed by Franklin Bulls as a Development Player but an injury crisis at Nelson Giants saw him added to the Giants roster.

Leger formed a formidable ‘Twin Towers’ front court at Mt Albert Grammar in 2019 playing alongside Nate Wilson on a team that won bronze at the 2019 Secondary School Nationals.

He is the cousin of Tall Ferns Krystal and Charlisse Leger-Walker.

Photo: @PhotosportNZ

Zeb Lovell

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Swingman
Height: 1.97m
Born: 23 October, 1993
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Nayland College

Previous NBL Clubs – Nelson Giants (2013)

The former Nayland College standout has played the last two seasons in Germany for Osnabruecker and prior to that he played 36 games for Eastern Mavericks in the South Australian State League in 2016 and 2017.

Thane O’Leary

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Forward
Height: 2.01m
Born: 11 June, 1998
Junior Association: Taranaki
High School: New Plymouth Boys High School

Previous NBL Clubs – Taranaki Mountain Airs (2016-2019)

No-nonsense forward O’Leary already has over 50 NBL games under his belt playing for Taranaki Mountainairs.
Named to the Tournament Team at the 2016 Schick Secondary Schools National Championships.

Nic Trathen

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Small Forward
Height: 2.02m
Born: 12 June, 1997
Junior Association: Nelson
High School: Waimea College

Previous NBL Clubs – Nelson Giants (2015-2019)
Trathen has played 33 games for the Giants, debuting in 2015 as a 17-year old.

Mika Vukona

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Forward
Height: 1.97m
Born: 13 May, 1982
Junior Association: Tauranga
High School: Bethlehem College, Tauranga then Nelson College for his final school year.
Highest Representative Honour: Tall Blacks – Debut 2005 (Appearances 162)

Previous NBL Clubs – Nelson Giants (2000-02, 2006-07, 2010-15, 2018-19), Manawatu Jets (2003) Harbour Heat (2008), Super City Rangers (2016)

Vukona has played 18 seasons in the New Zealand NBL 15 of those with the Giants.

During his storied career he has played 162 games for the Tall Blacks including the World Cups in 2006, 2010 and 2014). He is the only Tall Black to have played at both the 2006 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

He has won 5 Australian NBL titles – one with South Dragons and four with the Breakers. He is the Breakers All-Time leading rebounder (2,356) and has also played the most games for the club (354).

Michael Fitchett

Club: Nelson Giants
Position: Head Coach

A born and bred Nelsonian, Mike played 9 seasons for the Giants, including the 2007 Championship season. He is currently an assistant coach with the Tall Blacks and also spent 3 seasons as an assistant coach with the NZ Breakers in the Australian NBL. Mike came on board as the Nelson Giants Head Coach in 2019