Pepper says he was a 50% chance to return home to W.A to join the Wildcats.

Titans retain big man Pepper

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 1998 at 12:04 PM ET

The Melbourne City Titans have named 8 of their 10 man roster with the announcment that they had retained the services of centre Ben Pepper. Pepper is one of only three Giants players kept by the Titans with David Smith a possibility for the tenth man spot. Pepper was very close to returning home to W.A to play for the Wildcats. "I was a 50-50 chance to go back to Perth," Pepper said. "It's going to be exciting playing with this team. "The program is good and the deal is reasonably even to the one I had with North Melbourne." .

But while Pepper was excited about the prospects of joining the Titans, another Giants foward, capatain pat Reidy was left out in the cold by the new club for salary cap reasons. Reidy's manager/agent and former Giant Darryl Pearce saw it as the NBL's responsibility to ensure the ommited players found a home in the league. "Due to the lateness of the merger, the options open to the players aren't that attractive," Pearce said. "I hope the players that are left out are fully compensated and their basketball futures are not compromised." Reidy, who was the Giants best player last season was only told on Thursday morning that he would not be retained by the club. He is likely to sign a deal with the Brisbane Bullets this week.