Coronavirus: Family of NZ basketball reps ball out in bubble

Putting together a starting five of national basketball representatives would seem impossible during lockdown.

But former Tall Blacks big man Ed Book and his family have achieved just that, surely New Zealand's best basketball bubble.

Finding elite training competition hasn't been difficult for the Book family at their home in Christchurch.

"That's the one thing that we've found the hardest," Book tells Newshub. "To keep that competitive edge.

"But going against each other, at least we've got a little bit."

Book wrote himself into Kiwi basketball folklore, as part of the famous fourth-placed world championship Tall Blacks side of 2002.

The rest of the gang are handy too. Mum Lisa, daughter Amie, and teenage sons Josh and Nick have all represented New Zealand at age-group level.

Amie was forced to return home from college in the US, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and quickly found out her brothers are rapidly heading in the same direction.

"I haven't been home in 10 months," she says. "When I was last here, I was taller than them and now they're a couple of inches taller than me."

The young ones may be growing, but dad - a teacher by day - has still found plenty of time to hand out lessons during lockdown.

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