Tag Archives: wookie

We spoke with former NBL player and Star Wars actor, Axel Dench.

In part one of the podcast, Axel Dench spoke with the Professor about how he started his basketball career, being a member of the 1999 Gonzaga college basketball team that made the ‘Elite Eight’ at the NCAA championships, being selected as rookie of the year in the NBL in 2001 and he was a member of the Illawarra Hawks that were NBL champions in the same year. Perhaps he is better known as Wookie chieftain, Merumeru in the Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith.

In part two of the discussion with Axel, we talk about how he got his role of Merumeru in Star Wars and the sliding doors moment when he had to make the choice between basketball and a career on the silver screen.

Sportzfan Radio #182.1

@SportzfanRadio now available on iTunes!5 December 2010 182.1 – ‘Hostilities’ start early with Daniel noting that Stan is growing a beard and is dressing like a metrosexual.  Guest panelist Axel Dench is welcomed  by the Panel and the Professor comments that he thought the Melbourne Tigers, given their recruiting of seven footers, may have called on Axel to fill out the roster.  Daniel is on NBL “import” watch and indicates he thinks Eric Devendorf will survive but Craig Winder from the 36ers was wound up.  He also confirms LeBron James did the ‘powder clap’ and that the game between the Cavaliers and the Heat was like an NBA finals game.

Mark Fiorenti comes on to talk about the failed Australian bid for the 2022 World Cup.  He is shocked that Qatar won and that the Aussies only received one vote in the first round and therefore was eliminated.  Mark believes we may have been too honest and not cunning enought to get the required votes.  Axel wants to know how Australia could have been so blind sided by how countries would vote.  Mark believes we could have been naive and other countries thought getting Australia out early inproved their chamces in latter rounds.  The Professor asks just what we could have gotten for our $45 million spent on the failed bid.  Australia’s bid video gets unanimously panned by the Panel and Mark says it looked more like a tourism advertisement whilst Daniel says the sports stars we used may be big here but not to the rest of the world.  Mark thinks our next bid won’t be until the 2040 World Cup.

The Panel look at a tweet from Lisa Hayes regarding Tom Brady becoming a spokesperson for UGG clothing.  We find out that Daniel is a New England Patriots fan.  The Professor has Daniel speechless twice in a few minutes saying Tom is the elder brother the Brady Bunch never spoke about.  Daniel says the only thing he likes better than basketball is Star Wars and Axel says he gave out more Star Wars autographs than for basketball.

A tweet from Craig Eyles is also discussed regarding the Australian cricket team and the Ashes.  Stan says there aren’t enough players playing cricket and not enough care about whether we win the Ashes or not.  He says we should sack the selectors and Daniel actually agrees.  Axel believes the Aussie fans are front runners and tend to fall off when Australia is not doing well.