Young Bears fans will be given a shining example of the heights they can scale as they watch their favourite team in BBL action on Sunday.

Nick Nurse's title chasers will up against a 7ft 1ins giant who progressed from Worthing juniors to the full England team when they tackle Newcastle Eagles at the Triangle (5pm).

Ian Whyte was born in Bangor, north Wales, but spent his childhood in Brighton and Hove, where he attended Dorothy Stringer School.

He moved away to study in the United States and later played for Besancon in France and top Portuguese side Porto before returning to England in 1998.

Now 30 and settled in the north east, Whyte admits chances of returning to live in Sussex are remote but has fond memories of his teenage years in the south.

He said: "We had a teacher at Dorothy Stinger who knew Dave Goss at Worthing juniors and I got a call asking if I would be interested in playing some basketball. That was my first step.

"I was 15. I wasn't any good at the game at first but I was about 6ft 7ins or 6ft 8ins, which was useful.

"Dave was very good and I still talk to him from time to time. Paul and Andrew Goss were there and a bit later Daniel Hildreth came."

Seeing his path to senior status blocked by seven-footer Gary Cole, who had just returned from studying in the States, Whyte decided he too should try life across the pond.

He stayed there for four years before spells at London Towers and Leopards.

"When the Bosman ruling first came in I was at Leopards. In the squad then there was talk among some of the players of going to Europe and seeing what it was all about.

"That was something I had already decided I would do if I got the chance.

"I went to Besancon and thoroughly enjoyed myself, then to Porto, where I had tried out the previous summer."

Whyte is now in his fourth season with the Eagles and a regular in the England side.

Whyte's sidekicks Malcolm Leak and Fab Flournoy are struggling to be fit for Giants because of knee problems.