Marco Alexander

Marco Alexander (born 14 August 1991) is a New Zealand professional basketball player who currently plays for the Hawke's Bay Hawks of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL). After graduating from Rangitoto College in 2009, Alexander studied a Bachelor of Business Administration at Massey University from 2010 to 2014.

Early life

Alexander was born in Skopje, Macedonia on 14 August 1991 to Macedonian parents, Victor and Stefi. His younger brother, Borjan, was born three years later. In 2001, Alexander and his family fled the war-torn Yugoslavia and arrived in New Zealand two years later. Growing up in Auckland, Alexander played basketball, soccer, volleyball, water polo and athletics.^[1]

Junior career

In 2009, Alexander played for the New Zealand Breakers Academy in the Conference Basketball League Zone 1.^[2] In 2010, he played for Northside in the Supercity Basketball Competition.^[3] In 2012, he played for the Harbour Heat Reserves in the Senior Intercity Basketball Competition.^[4]

At the 2009 Under-19 National Championship, Alexander competed for Harbour. During the third place playoff, Alexander lead the way with 29 points in an 81-65 win over Otago.^[5] At the 2010 Under-21 National Championship, Alexander again competed for Harbour,^[6] going on to be named the tournament MVP.^[7] At the 2011 Under-21 National Championship, Alexander competed for Waikato. In the six games Waikato played, Alexander averaged a huge 42.6 points per game and in one game, Alexander scored 50 points in an 87-71 victory over Palmerston North.^[8] At the 2013 Under-23 National Championship, Alexander competed for North Harbour and was subsequently named to the All-Tournament team.^[9][10]

World University Games

Alexander attended the 2011 Summer University Games in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China^[11] where in seven games, New Zealand won just two. They had tough games in pool play against Russia, Lithuania, Japan and Ukraine, managing to salvage one win out of their pool against the Philippines in which Alexander scored 21 points. He finished the tournament with averages of 15.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2 assists per game.

Professional career

In December 2010, Alexander joined the Waikato Pistons for the 2011 New Zealand NBL season.^[12] He received limited minutes playing behind Jerry Smith and Jason Crowe.

Following the Pistons' decision to not participate in the 2012 New Zealand NBL season, Alexander joined the Harbour Heat. Following the Heat's decision to not participate in the 2013 New Zealand NBL season, Alexander joined the Waikato Pistons, returning to the club for a second stint.^[13] After a successful season, he was selected in the 2013 Tall Blacks China Tour extended squad.^[14]

In January 2014, Alexander joined the Hawke's Bay Hawks for the 2014 New Zealand NBL season.^[15] In September 2014, he signed with Melbourne United as a development player for the 2014–15 NBL season.^[16] He made his debut for United on 19 October 2014 against the New Zealand Breakers, but was later sidelined for the rest of the season with a hip injury that required surgery. He returned to New Zealand and despite the injury, re-signed with Hawke's Bay for the 2015 season.^[17]

NBL career statistics

References

External links

• Eurobasket.com profile
• NZNBL stats
• ANBL stats