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Nov 26, 2014 - Download Full Image. More than 900 mixed-income housing units, a healthcare center and the Native American Connections office building.

OPINION: And the winner of the Halberg Award for the ultimate act of sporting selflessness in the name of your country goes to .. Isaac Fotu.

OK there's no such award. But maybe there should be. And maybe Fotu should be its inaugural recipient. He would certainly take some beating after the events of late last week.

In case you don't follow basketball in general (it is this country's fastest growing major sport in our schools), or the national men's team we call the Tall Blacks specifically, let me bring you up to speed.

Fotu is a 24-year-old member of Paul Henare's Tall Blacks. He plies his professional trade in Germany, where he is halfway through a two-year deal playing for the Ratiopharm Ulm club, but returns at every feasible opportunity to represent his country. He loves it.

READ MORE:
* Tall Blacks eye next challenge
* Fotu chooses NZ, not Celtics
* Tall Blacks topple China

He was back just recently to line up for the Tall Blacks in their last two Asia zone first-round games of Fiba World Cup qualifying against Hong Kong in Rotorua and China in Auckland.

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In the midst of that schedule he received a call from his agent to tell him the Boston Celtics of the NBA had invited him to play for them at the upcoming Summer League in Las Vegas from July 6.

It was the type of call Fotu has been working the majority of his life to receive: A real opportunity for this outstanding young basketballer to showcase his talents on the first rung of the ladder leading to the ultimate arena, the NBA.

No guarantees. And in reality a bit of a long shot. But funnier things have happened in this business we call sport.

Just three Kiwis have ever even made it as far as the NBA. Four if you count New Zealand-born Aron Baynes (but we don't, given as he has chosen to represent Australia at the international level). Sean Marks got there first, and had a pretty decent decade-long career before switching to the front office. (He is now General Manager of the Brooklyn Nets.)

Kirk Penney also cracked it momentarily between 2003 and 2005, appearing in just two games for the Miami Heat and four games for the Los Angeles Clippers, and of course we now have Steven Adams carving out quite some career for the Oklahoma City Thunder and about to commence year two of a four-year US$100 million (NZ$149m) contract extension. We are all so, so proud of him.

The NBA is the place every basketballer on the planet aspires to play; and so few get the opportunity to grace.

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And here was Fotu with a chance to audition for that privilege.

He should have been jumping for joy. And right on a plane to the US.

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But instead he took 'about one or two seconds' to decide he wouldn't be accepting their kind offer. The reason? He would have been required to fly out of Auckland for Boston on Saturday morning, and would have had to miss the Tall Blacks' vital game against China at Spark Arena on Sunday.

Fotu is a fabulous young man from a brilliant family in Auckland. His father Manu was a Tongan professional league player and mother Jenny is English by nationality. They moved to New Zealand to live when Isaac was a youngster and he, brothers Dan and Jacob and sister Ella have all risen through the ranks as outstanding basketballers.

Isaac, or Ike as he's know round the Tall Blacks, is quietly spoken and apologetically humble. He is also a distinctive individual, standing 2.03m, with a bushy 'fro he usually wears tied up atop his head and a fair smattering of the tattoos that are such a big part of his cultural heritage.

He said it had not been difficult to say no to the NBA. 'I thought about it for 1-2 seconds and then realised how much I love playing for this team, playing with my brothers and we had a home game in Auckland in front of my friends and family. To be honest, it didn't take long at all to decide that.' Neo sans intel font.

A crowd of 8000 (including China's NBA legend Yao Ming) packed Spark Arena for a high-quality hoops contest. It was the biggest home attendance the Tall Blacks had ever played in front of and they obliged with a 10-point victory that puts them on course for a spot at next year's World Cup.

At a time when Adams continues to refuse to play for his country (he assuredly has his reasons, though hasn't bothered to tell us yet), Fotu's stance is refreshing and faith-restoring.

Playing for his country still means something to this bloke. Take a bow Ike, if not an award while you're at it.