Height made me victim of playground bullies Ian Whyte was unmercifully bullied at school - a nightmare memory that hasn't left him with the passing of time. Whyte's face clouded over as he told how being skyscraper tall was a massive drawback before it became a career asset twice over. "It was an absolute liability at school," he said. "I was bullied continuously and without mercy and, yes, it hurt me tremendously. I was shattered by it. "I was no good at sport. I was always the last kid they picked for a team whether it be football, cricket, rugby or whatever. I hated soccer because the kids playing it were the same ones who took the mick. "What changed things was our sports teacher, who took basketball as well as rugby. I was about 15, tall and skinny with no co-ordination. I towered over everyone - I was about 6ft 4in even then. But he tried me at basketball and I started on the junior programme at Worthing Bears, which later became Brighton Bears. I guess that changed my life." The gawky lad, a Bambi on ice, wasn't expected to return after the very first session. "My lip exploded in a shower of blood," smiled Whyte. "The coach thought that was it, they would never see me again. However, I organised lifts from Brighton to Worthing and soon they were saying `we've got to hold on to him.' I was thrust to the front rather than pushed to the back. "Basketball became an obsession and I was off towards a career." Bobby and I are Porto heroes Sir Bobby Robson and Ian Whyte - two men from vastly differing sports - have one thing in common. "We have both won a national championship with Porto," smiled Whyte. "The football club was the centrepiece of a sporting club which included basketball.
 "The Porto team was awesome. We won the treble and reached the quarter-finals in Europe. It was the year after Bobby Robson's success and it was Utopia." In fact, Whyte was a bit of a globetrotter before arriving in Newcastle. He played in Greece, France and Belgium as well as Portugal. "Greece was unbelievable," he said. "The fanaticism for basketball beats anywhere else I've been. We always had a police escort for away games to get us in and out of town and friends regularly regaled me with hellish stories of coaches being fired at and bricks being thrown through the windows. It was way over the top. They were obsessed." Welshman earned 80 caps for England A career spanning nine years during which time he earned 80 caps for England is the basketball legacy of Ian Whyte. His professional career began in London in 1994 with the Towers and ended in Newcastle where five years' service as an Eagle brought him an appearance in the 2002 Trophy final. "I didn't set the world alight and never thought of myself as a superstar," admitted Ian. "I worked very, very hard and I was steady. "I must be the only Welshman to win 80 caps with England - but then I was only born in Bangor because work had taken my parents there. "The England set-up was amateurish, not well organised or smoothly run. There was talent around but it wasn't harnessed properly." Looking at then and now, Ian went on: "There are many differences and similarities between what I did as a basketball player and what I do as an actor. "One of the differences is that I used to spend the week building up to the weekend fixtures but in the movie business you haven't got that luxury. Every day is game day." Between retirement two seasons ago to the advent of Predator and Potter, Whyte considered other ways of earning a crust and actually sat a Football Association agents exam as well as doing a post-graduate course in marketing. "But nothing satisfied me," he admitted, "until the day Sam Foggo phoned about receiving a call from a casting agent!" | 
