The talented 20-year-old is weighing up invitations to join either the Santa Rosa or Sierra colleges in California, where he’ll study business management as well as hone his on-court skills.

The 198cm-tall youngster needs to make his mind up quickly about where he’ll end up – the year-long courses start in the middle of next month.

“This is a fantastic opportunity as I’ve always wanted to have a go at being a professional basketball player,” Aston says.

“It also makes sense to get some business qualifications under my belt as they might be useful if I end up coming back to Queenstown to work.”

Aston spent seven months in Auckland last year with the New Zealand Breakers basketball side – the country’s top team – on a junior development programme.

“That was great experience,” he adds. “The owner of the Breakers also got me and four other young players jobs at the local Pak ‘n’ Save, which was good for the supermarket as they must have had the tallest team of shelf-stackers in NZ.”

Aston – who plays shooting guard – has also turned out for the NZ under-21 basketball team at home and overseas, and was recently with the Otago Nuggets in Dunedin.