The San Antonio Spurs appear set to reward Mareeba product Aron Bayneswith a multi-million-dollar NBA deal and Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze believes he can become an established player at that level.

The 26-year-old, who only started playing basketball seriously 11 years ago when spotted by a high school coach, is set to transfer to the Texas-based club immediately as they press for an NBA championship.

"They've had to pay to get him so it's not like they've just gone 'oh we'll have a look'  it looks like he's a long-term proposition with an opportunity to play some sort of role this season," Gaze said.

It is understood that the Spurs will pay out the $400,000 contract to his Slovenian club Union Olympija and that he will play until 2014, with the option for two more seasons, with San Antonio.

The Spurs boast Australian guard Patty Mills, Argentine Manu Ginobli and American legends Tony Parker and Tim Duncan.
They sit third in the Western Conferenceafter handing the LA Lakers their fifth straight loss yesterday.

It is the same club that offered Gaze another shot at the big time in 1999 and he went on to win an NBA championship ring.

And it was Gaze who helped convince the New Zealand-born Baynes to pledge his allegiance to Australia three years ago.
"He wasn't even sure then that he'd play in an Olympics, but we fought to get him," he said.

"He has earned this opportunity and it's come at a place where he'll be well suited.

"They have developed a good team culture and everyone buys into the system."

The hulking centre showed the world what he could do as one of the Boomers' best at the London Games and has since backed it up for Olympija (13.8 points and nine rebounds per game) to be regarded as one of the Euroleague's best bigs.

Gaze said the fact Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown, who coached the Boomers in London, was at the club would have helped him end up in San Antonio.

"Every NBA club would know who he is and obviously Brown had a belief and saw something in Aron," he said.

"He has that size, athleticism and competitive instinct. You see it in every Australian that does well in the United States, that they have that (mongrel) about them and Aron is no different.

"He doesn't back down from anyone."

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