Alex Pledger is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 professional basketball player. He is a 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) tall, 249 pound center

Center (basketball)

The center, colloquially known as the five or the post, is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a great deal of strength and body mass as well...

. Pledger currently plays for the New Zealand Breakers

New Zealand Breakers

The New Zealand Breakers are a professional basketball team competing in the Australasian National Basketball League. The Breakers joined the NBL for the 2003/04 season as one of two expansion clubs. The club is based in the city of Auckland, New Zealand and play their home games at the North...

 professional basketball team and is a member of the New Zealand national basketball team

New Zealand national basketball team

The New Zealand national basketball team represents New Zealand in international basketball competitions. It is nicknamed the Tall Blacks, derived from the name of New Zealand's Rugby union team, the All Blacks.-History:...

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College

Pledger played NCAA Division I basketball for two seasons with the University of Missouri Kansas City Kangaroos. 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

Mid-Continent Conference

The Summit League is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. On June 1, 2007, the conference changed its name from the Mid-Continent Conference.- Current membership :...

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After a foot injury limited him to one game in the 2007-08 season, Pledger transferred to Belmont Abbey College

Belmont Abbey College

Belmont Abbey College is a private liberal-arts Catholic college located in Belmont, North Carolina, USA west of Uptown Charlotte. It was founded in 1876 by the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey...

 for his final college season. Pledger played in twelve games for the Division II Crusaders, averaging 12.1 points to go along with a team-leading 5.9 rebounds and 19 blocks.

Professional career

In April 2009, the New Zealand Breakers

New Zealand Breakers

The New Zealand Breakers are a professional basketball team competing in the Australasian National Basketball League. The Breakers joined the NBL for the 2003/04 season as one of two expansion clubs. The club is based in the city of Auckland, New Zealand and play their home games at the North...

 announced that they had sign Pledger, the tallest person in New Zealand sport, to a development contract.

In the 2011 season for the Waikato Pistons in the NZNBL Alex was named the league's Most Valuable Player over Pistons team-mates Jerry Smith and Jason Crowe. For the 2011 season Alex averaged 16.8 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks per game.

Pledger played for the Waikato Pistons from 2009 to 2011.

International career

Pledger made his senior debut with the New Zealand national basketball team

New Zealand national basketball team

The New Zealand national basketball team represents New Zealand in international basketball competitions. It is nicknamed the Tall Blacks, derived from the name of New Zealand's Rugby union team, the All Blacks.-History:...

 at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men 2008

FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men 2008

The FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men 2008 was the final qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympic men's basketball tournament...

, seeing limited action off the bench for the Tall Blacks. He also played for the team at the FIBA Oceania Championship 2009

FIBA Oceania Championship 2009

The FIBA Oceania Championship for Men 2009 was the qualifying tournament of FIBA Oceania for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey. For the first time, the tournament featured a best-of-two, home-and-away series between Australia and New Zealand. Game one was held in Sydney, New South Wales...

. Pledger saw significantly more action, scoring 16 points and grabbing six rebounds in Game 1 in a narrow loss to Australia

Australia national basketball team

The Australian national basketball team is the men's basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known in Australia as the Boomers, an Australian slang term for Kangaroo. Australia is ranked 9th in the world and finished 7th at the 2008 Beijing Olympic...

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.

Previously, Pledger also played for the New Zealand Junior (Under 19) National Team.