Alex Pledger

Alex John Pledger (born 27 March 1987) is a New Zealand professional basketball player who currently plays for the New Zealand Breakers of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). He is also a member of the New Zealand national team.

College career

Pledger played NCAA Division I basketball for two seasons with the University of Missouri Kansas City Kangaroos.^[1] In his freshman season, he saw action in eight games while playing sparingly off the bench. Pledger saw significantly more action in his sophomore year, playing in 29 of 32 games while starting 23 of them. He averaged 5.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game and added 31 blocks, which ranked third in the Mid-Continent Conference.^[1]

After a foot injury limited him to one game in the 2007–08 season, Pledger transferred to Belmont Abbey College in 2008 for his final college season. Pledger played in twelve games for the Division II Crusaders in 2008–09, averaging 12.1 points to go along with a team-leading 5.9 rebounds and 19 blocks.^[2]

Professional career

After graduating from Belmont Abbey, Pledger returned to New Zealand and joined the Waikato Pistons for the rest of the 2009 New Zealand NBL season. He later signed with the New Zealand Breakers as a development player for the 2009–10 NBL season.^[3] Following his first season with the Breakers, he re-joined the Waikato Pistons for the 2010 New Zealand NBL season.

Pledger joined the full New Zealand Breakers playing squad for the 2010–11 season^[4] and grew into a valuable back-up centre role coming off the bench to Gary Wilkinson. He later helped the Breakers win their maiden NBL championship with a 2–1 series win over the Cairns Taipans in the 2011 grand final. His promising season with the Breakers led to a dominated New Zealand NBL season with the Pistons in 2011. Pledger went on to be named the league's Most Valuable Player, garnering the award over Pistons teammates Jerry Smith and Jason Crowe. For the season, he averaged 16.8 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game.

Pledger continued to back-up Wilkinson in 2011–12 and helped the Breakers win back-to-back championships. Following the championship win with the Breakers, he joined the Auckland Pirates^[5] and won another championship within a matter of months, leading the Pirates to the 2012 title with a Finals MVP performance.^[6]

With Wilkinson's departure from the Breakers in 2012, Pledger became the club's main big man for the 2012–13 season.^[7] He subsequently earned Player of the Week honours for Round 22 and 23,^[8][9] and recorded career-best numbers during the season with averages of 10.7 points and 7.3 rebounds to help the Breakers claim a rare NBL three-peat, defeating the Perth Wildcats in the grand final for a second year in a row.^[10]

After a great season in 2012–13, Pledger's 2013–14 season did not plan out like he would have hoped, missing the majority of the season with a left ankle injury^[11] and appearing in just 13 games. The Breakers subsequently missed out on the playoffs in 2014.

Pledger returned to action in 2014–15 as a back-up to Ekene Ibekwe,^[12] and with 5.5 points and 3.7 rebounds in 30 games, he helped the Breakers reclaim the NBL championship, defeating the Cairns Taipans once again thanks to an Ibekwe buzzer beater in Game 2 of the series.

On 18 March 2015, Pledger recommitted to the Breakers before going under the knife to have his turf toe problem repaired.^[13] On 15 September 2015, he signed with the Southland Sharks for the 2016 New Zealand NBL season.^[14]

International career

Pledger made his senior debut with the New Zealand national team at the 2008 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, seeing limited action off the bench for the Tall Blacks.^[15] He also played for the team at the 2009 FIBA Oceania Championship. Pledger saw significantly more action, recording 16 points and six rebounds in Game 1 in a narrow loss to Australia before adding 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds in a New Zealand Game 2 victory that gave the Tall Blacks their third Oceania Championship.^[16]

References

External links

• Breakers player profile
• ANBL stats