NBA Talent Builds Anzac's Belief

South East Melbourne centre Anzac Rissetto has been taking the NZNBL by storm this off-season, and the development player has credited his Phoenix teammates for his huge improvement over the past 12 months.

Rissetto has averaged 13.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game for the Taranaki Airs in the competition, even though his side currently sits bottom of the competition with just two wins from nine games.

The centre has saved his two best performances of the season for the ladder-leading Canterbury. In his first appearance of the campaign, Rissetto dropped 18 points and 10 rebounds against them, while he added 17 points against the Rams in his last outing.

<iframe src="https://omny.fm/shows/nbl-podcasts/anzac-rissetto-on-senz-may-30-2023/embed?style=artwork" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0" title="Anzac Rissetto on SENZ - May 30, 2023"></iframe>

“There’s so much NBA talent in the NBL,” Rissetto told SENZ. “Alan Williams played with Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns. Zhou Qi when he was there played with the Houston Rockets for a couple of years. Mitch Creek played over there for a couple of years.

“The amount of knowledge those guys pass onto me day in, day out, it’s the little things.

“Getting up and down on every possession, not taking a rest, just the little things on how to become a real pro in this game.

“From footwork, to reads, to what they see compared to what I see, and just upskilling me in that area.

“I think it shows in my game this year and how I’ve been playing, now I’m trying to turn that into consistent things.”

Rissetto quickly became a cult figure at the Phoenix during NBL23.

Despite his limited minutes across the season, he quickly endeared himself to fans through the raucous support he provided to his teammates, along with his bench antics.

He says the key to his mentality is the fact he knows what it’s like to work in a job outside of basketball.

“I’ve been on the other side, the 9-5 working early mornings,” he said. “Waking up at 4am to get to work for 5:30 or 6am to sit on a digger all day and not really enjoy it – just to make money, because that’s my job,” Rissetto discussed.

“I’ve been on that side so every time I go out there I’m like ‘yeah, it’s time to compete’, but if this all went away I know what I’d have to do after this – I’d have to sit on a digger all day.

“Everyone says ‘there’s so much pressure, there’s so much pressure’, but to be honest, pressure is finding your next meal, or wondering how you’re going to pay your bills.

“Going out there and playing basketball – that’s fun.

“The crowd pays their hard-earned money to come and watch us, so I want to make it fun for them.”

Rissetto signed a two-year extension with the Phoenix in March. The first season of that deal will see him remain a development player, while the second year is a club option that would see him elevated to the main roster for NBL25.

The Phoenix will open their NBL24 campaign against local rivals Melbourne United on Thursday, September 28.