Foul Play: The Tiny Pinder story is a new must-watch documentary from The West Australian

Cameron Venditti was 14 years old and sitting courtside during the 2009 State Basketball Championships when he discovered a half-brother he never knew existed was right next to him. Venditti and his teammate, Keanu, were chatting during a break from competition when they discovered they had more in common than their height, running style and freakish basketball talent. “He mentioned his dad’s from the Bahamas, and I was like, ‘oh, that’s where my dad’s like from’. I didn’t really think anything of it,” Venditti explains. “And then that’s when he mentioned his name and my body kind of just like froze. And we just looked at each other and I was like, ‘that’s my dad’s name’.” That name, Pinder, elicits instant reactions from most West Australians who lived through the Perth Wildcats’ golden era in the late 1980s and early 90s. Kendal “Tiny” Pinder was one of the team’s most exciting players; a flashy, charismatic 6.7ft former NBA player, hailing from the Bahamas, who cemented legend status on the court and off it. Alongside fellow household names Ricky Grace, James Crawford, Mike Ellis and Andrew Vlahov, Pinder and his teammates had rock star status in Perth in the early to mid 90s, when they won three NBL championships. The first of those came in 1990, when the club moved its home court to the Perth Entertainment Centre and player-coach Cal Bruton retired from the court to focus on recruiting star imports, including Pinder. But that same year, just as the Wildcats’ popularity reached fever pitch, came the shocking news: Pinder the superstar, so crucial to the team’s success, had allegedly sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl. Over the coming years it would become apparent that Pinder was, in Vlahov’s words, a “despicable sexual predator”, who would go on to spend much of the next three decades in jail after being dramatically arrested in the team’s locker rooms during a crucial final. For Venditti and his brother, Keanu Pinder, growing up as two of Pinder’s 12 children has involved trying to reconcile these personas — the superstar, the criminal and simply, their dad. Venditti, a softly spoken giant who has dedicated himself to social work, says while Pinder is his father, he does not condone his crimes. “Truthfully it’s something that I can’t ignore, because it’s something that has impacted people,” he says. “And that’s something that I’m never going to just forget, I don’t believe that’s right.” The 27-year-old said that having Pinder as his father was “an emotional rollercoaster” but he has decided to harness the challenge in navigating through his own life by helping others. The extent to which one of Pinder’s personas — the sporting icon — overshadowed his crimes and allowed him to get away with them is explored in a new five-part true crime video series from The West Australian. Foul Play: The Tiny Pinder story details Pinder’s rise to fame and fall from grace through in-depth interviews with Pinder’s former teammates and coach, alleged victims and his son, Venditti, giving insight into one of WA’s most scandalous sporting sagas. Pinder’s basketball career began in America in the 1970s when he was drafted into the NBA and went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters before moving to Australia. Here he played for the Sydney Supersonics, Illawarra Hawks and the Wildcats, helping the club win championships in 1990 and 1991 before being dumped by the team following his conviction for sexual assault in 1992. Pinder’s untouchable status started to unravel when police were waiting for him as he and his teammates came into the change rooms at half-time during a pivotal final against the Giants on October 6, 1990. The team convinced police to let him see out the game, which they went on to win. Pinder, despite what had taken place at half-time, had a stellar second half to finish with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Just two days later he was facing court charged with sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and deprivation of liberty, which would lead to the first of numerous stints behind bars. This all took place before Venditti was born in May 1995. His mother met Pinder at a sports store he owned in Perth. Venditti says he was raised “by the most amazing mum and wouldn’t change his childhood for anything”, but he admits to feelings of confusion and anger towards his absent father as a child. “I knew that he was a professional basketball player. I knew that I had multiple siblings that were all over in different States and in America,” he explains. But he could never have imagined that one of those siblings was right in front of him. In the documentary, Venditti, recounts that life changing meeting 13 years ago with Keanu, then a talented teen who has gone on to make a name for himself in the NBL, where he now plays for the Cairns Taipans. Venditti also reveals that meeting brought about his first conversation with his dad, whom Keanu phoned immediately after making the discovery. “He answered pretty quick. And then he asked if I got a brother in Perth called Cameron, and then I heard his voice like confirmed all of it,” Venditti explains. “And I was just sitting there like, ‘oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening’. And then he just like passed me the phone and, I’ll never forget this, putting the phone to my ear and just basically saying like, ‘hello’, and just hearing his voice for the first time. “And it was like, oh, this is not how I felt my day was going to turn out. And then since then, we’ve just had a relationship since.” He’s also formed a relationship with his brother, and several other siblings, in the subsequent years. “I pretty much went to a basketball game, and then I had a friend, that was also a teammate. And then suddenly, now I’ve got a brother for the rest of my life and yeah, it’s been really great,” Venditti says. FOUL PLAY. THE TINY PINDER STORY, WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS OF THEWEST.COM.AU FROM TUESDAY. He speaks to his dad, who is behind bars in NSW, almost every week. His feelings towards him now, just as they were when he was a child, are complex, as he wrestles with the idea that the man he has come to know is also a convicted criminal. “Having Tiny Pinder as my dad has always been a very confusing feeling because you’re sort of conflicted at times because you know, the bad stuff that’s happened and you don’t necessarily agree with it, but the same time, it’s your dad,” he says, “It was like, is he a good man? Is he a bad man? And I just needed to figure that out for myself. It is very hard to navigate. But I’ve always had a place in my heart for the people that have been affected by him. And I’ve never tried to justify it because I understand what’s happened has been wrong.” Others close to Pinder at the time of the Wildcats glory days have also since had to reconcile the experiences they shared with him and the memories from that time with what they now know of the 66-year-old. They share that journey with honesty and candour in the documentary, with former teammate and Wildcats legend Andrew Vlahov declaring: “If that had happened to my daughter, I’d probably go to jail.” After his first trial, relating to offences against a teenage girl, Pinder was given a suspended sentence, a decision that was overturned on appeal in May 1992, when he was sentenced to 18 months jail. Hours later, the Wildcats sacked their star recruit, paying tribute to his contribution to the club as a player and entertainer but stating they viewed the offences seriously. Fourteen months later, Pinder had received his third conviction for sexual assault, bringing his total sentence to 7.5 years. He was released from jail in 1994, and after the Wildcats declined his attempt to return to the side he was signed by the Illawarra Hawks in November 1994. Vlahov describes this move as mind boggling and a “poor decision” in the documentary. Vlahov also reveals he was not told that Pinder had sexual assault charges pending when he joined the team, from America, in 1991. “When I first found out about Tiny’s arrest, I felt betrayed ... Had I known about that, I wouldn’t want to be on that team, I wouldn’t want him on that team,” he says. Vlahov’s concern at the time that Pinder had been allowed back into the NBL would prove valid. Six months after he joined the Hawks he was facing fresh charges, relating to an attack on a 15-year-old girl while he was on his honeymoon. He served three years and nine months for that offence but was back in the courts just 16 months after his August 1999 release facing rape charges, which a jury later cleared him on. Now 66, he is in jail in NSW awaiting trial on sexual assault charges. Foul Play also features interviews with other key figures from that time, including the then-captain Mike Ellis, the Wildcats owner at the time Bob Williams, Harlem Globetrotter star Curly Boo Johnson and former editor of The West Australian Paul Murray. Venditti has never spoken to his dad about his criminal history, and wanted to take part in the documentary to share a different side to him, while acknowledging the pain he had caused. The father and son first met in Sydney, where Pinder was based, not long after that first life-altering phone call. Venditti recalls his dad walking towards him in a busy street, his head and shoulders sticking out above the crowds. They hugged, and as they continued on together, people constantly came up to Pinder to chat about those glory days. The second time they met, again in Sydney when Venditti was 16, his dad dropped him off at a hotel, handed him a box and said not to open it until he was upstairs. “I went upstairs and opened it, and I saw it was the 1990 (Wildcats) championship ring. It just hit home a bit because it was like I’ve only met him twice, but I guess I must mean something to him, or he can see something in me, so I’ve pretty much held onto this pretty closely since then,” he says. During that same trip they went to a local gym and Pinder showed his son some basketball drills. Venditti had grown up playing soccer and only turned to basketball as a teenager, finally giving in to the constant calls for him to pick up a ball due to his clear height advantage and genetics. He was good, and after about six years of taking it seriously he was asked to try out for the Australian Institute of Sport and the national team. But on the eve of those try-outs a knee injury, his second one in a short amount of time, brought that dream to a devastating close. Venditti is happy to be forging his own path, in his own name. “I didn’t want to take on my father’s last name because I’ve just always wanted to make a name for myself,” he explains. He says he is very much at peace with how his life turned out. “I thought (basketball) was what I wanted to do and what I was meant to do because of my brother playing and my dad played, but I realised later in life that wasn’t for me that wasn’t the path I was meant to take. “Now I’ve gone down the social work field and it feels like that’s where I’m meant to be, is to help people, not play basketball. “So I have absolutely no regrets over how everything turned out. And I can still play, (but) just have a bit of fun with it.” FOUL PLAY. THE TINY PINDER STORY, WILL BE AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS OF THEWEST.COM.AU FROM TUESDAY.