The New Orleans Hornets are one of the top teams in basketball. A useful player coming off their bench to play 13.6 minutes per game this season is forward/center Sean Marks. The 6-10, 250-pound New Zealand native is averaging 3.1 points and 3.2 rebounds. The Hornets are Sean's fifth team since entering the league in 1998.

InsideHoops.com editor Jeff Lenchiner met with Marks yesterday in New Jersey at a Hornets-Nets game for an exclusive interview.

InsideHoops.com: I spent quite a while in Australia, and wanted to then go to New Zealand but haven't made the trip yet. But everyone raves how New Zealand is ridiculously beautiful.

Sean Marks: You should have gone. From a geography standpoint, New Zealand is beautiful. If you like the outdoors, it's got everything, from the beaches... North New Zealand is tropical, and further down south you have skiing, the glaciers, beautiful parks and stuff like that. If you've seen Lord of the Rings, it's not exactly that, but it's got some of that.

InsideHoops.com: So in other words, New Zealand is exactly like the inside of the subway station in NYC's Times Square.

Sean Marks: Yeah; it's a big difference, that's for sure.

InsideHoops.com: You don't have to name a full roster or starting lineup, but who would you say should be mentioned on the Sean Marks New Zealand basketball all-star team? Past, present, anyone.

Sean Marks: I can think of a couple of guys. Stan Hill, he was sort of one of the ambassadors for us. The first to come over here on a scholarship in the States. Some say he could have played in the league. Kirk Penney. And Mark Dickel, played at UNLV. Maybe throw me in there, ya know? And Phil Jones. If you go back to the team that played in the 2002 world champs, that was one of our better teams. Pero Cameron, he's known around the world. He's a big body. He was on the tournament's All-Star five, so you have to throw him in there for sure.

InsideHoops.com: Kirk Penney is pretty well-known. And I know his team is doing well in the NBL playoffs in Australia, and may be making the Finals.

Sean Marks: They just lost. So they're out now. But most of those guys, Kirk's down there, Phil's down there, Pero's down there. They're all playing in the Australian/New Zealand league. I think Mark's playing over in Europe.

InsideHoops.com: Is there a basketball court that would be the Rucker Park of New Zealand?

Sean Marks: (Laughs) If you wanted to tell me, is there a Rucker Park for guys to go play some rugby, yeah, there's probably that. But in terms of hoops, not really. It's a rugby nation down there, and I think everybody grows up with a rugby ball in their hand at some stage.

InsideHoops.com: After rugby, what's the second most popular sport there? Is it football/soccer? Or cricket maybe?

Sean Marks: Yeah, cricket is probably up there. Rugby, soccer, cricket. Basketball is definitely a growing sport. A lot of excitement, and kids are starting to get into it for sure.

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