Pepper Spices It Up

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For those multitude of Ben Pepper fans, here's a recent article extolling his many virtues.
How can the NBA keep Mr.Pepper salted away in Australia?  It boggles the mind....

Townsville Bulletin, Australia

Pepper spices it up
By Grantley Bernard
16oct03 
FOR a bloke who has the potential to go as far as the eye can see, Ben Pepper's career graph has been more like the jagged, up and down inner-city skyline.

Almost since he broke into the NBL in 1996, Pepper has suffered from inconsistency, whether in terms of playing time controlled by coaches or his own performance, sometimes affected by injury and fitness. 
Even in two games this season, the Victoria Giants centre has shown his trademark, going for 28 points and 11 rebounds in the season-opener before scraping together four points, five rebounds a week later. 
None of this is news to 213cm Pepper, whose potential was enough for the NBA's Boston Celtics to spend a second-round draft pick on him in 1997, or Giants coach Mark Wright, who signed him in the off-season. 
"We've seen glimpses of Pep's ability and nothing consistent," Wright said. "We talked about giving him the opportunity to showcase his game and prove that he can play consistently at a high level. We need him to and he wants to." 
There is no question Pepper will get the chance to prove himself consistently because Wright has committed to playing Pepper for big minutes. 
With no other genuine back-up centre, he has to. 
In the recent past, Pepper has shared court time with Brett Wheeler and Axel Dench and, more often than not, injury and game-night form has dictated which of the trio has played the bulk of the minutes. 
At least now, Pepper, who was once described by his former North Melbourne coach Brett Brown as being ready to throw-up in the lay-up line, looks to be fitter and in better shape than any of his eight NBL seasons. 
Returning to Melbourne and the Giants after a couple of unsatisfying seasons with the Wollongong Hawks, Pepper is eager to work and play and be pushed by Wright, "a relentless kind of coach". 
"I think I am reasonably fit, but there was times (in the first game) I was coughing up a lung or two," Pepper said. "I could be fitter and there's always places I can improve and places I can work." 
There is also a need for Pepper to develop a mental edge that pushes him towards challenging for a spot on the Boomers roster. 
"I want to drive myself," Pepper said. "Maybe I've shied away from it a little bit. If you say it, you've got to live it. I don't want to be just seven feet tall. I want to be a good player, too."