It’s become a signature Marcus Bontempelli play; when trouble closes in he raises those long arms and fires off a handball to a streaking teammate, leaving the defender still holding as if the long-gone ball could still be won.

It’s a skill, he told Channel Seven, that comes from hours spent toiling in basketball stadiums across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs as a junior for the Eltham Wildcats.

“I think the raising of the arms element of my game has come from a basketball background,” Bontempelli said.

“I feel like that’s something you always practice, just trying to confuse the defender and get their hands moving and open up different passing lanes.

“It can get you out of trouble; sometimes it can get you in a bit of trouble because you do it straight away rather than pick a gap or move into space that’s open.”

Space. He seems to always find it when he needs it, and it’s the quick, lateral movement that’s so important in basketball that can be so valuable on a football field.

“I think another main thing that I’ve learnt from basketball is movement in all directions. Feeling that pressure around you and sensing where that space is,” he said. 

“So that’s something that’s developed naturally through a couple of different sports, and I’m thankful that it did because it does help around the stoppages and in close."

Bontempelli was good enough to play at club representative level for the Wildcats, and according to his then-coach, Ben Ward, more than held his own against Utah Jazz guard Dante Exum when he was playing for Keilor.

“From memory he kept him under 20, and not many were able to do that at the time,’’ his Eltham under 16s coach, Ben Ward told the Herald Sun in 2014.

At 193cm and 92kg, who knows what Marcus Bontempelli the basketballer could have looked like, but basketball’s loss is football’s gain.