But when the towering US recruit hit the court at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre this week, it wasn’t just his height that made heads turn.

Horvath, the final player to arrive at camp ahead of the Crazy John’s South Dragons’ second NBL season, has been quick to make an impact out on court.

And with just two days of training with the new team under his belt, Horvath knows this is one line-up that has what it takes to go all the way in 2007/08.

“I think we have a lot of good young guys that will surprise people and a lot of guys coming back, and some guys who didn’t even play last year because of injury who are in really top form at the moment,” Horvath said.

“I think we have a lot of tools that will make it tough for teams to guard us.”

After time with the West Sydney Razorbacks and the Adelaide 36ers, Horvath arrived in Melbourne last Friday with just one goal in mind: the NBL Championship.

“I want to go as far as we can in the playoffs this season; it’s a bit of a cliche but winning is basically the be all and end all of the basketball life,” he said.

After a busy off-season with the Wellington Saints in the New Zealand NBL, Horvath has hit camp with all guns blazing and is loving every minute of his time in Melbourne.

“I’m enjoying all the guys, I think we have a chance to be really good this year and I’m liking everything we’re doing at training,” he said.

“I like Melbourne, we’ve seen some cool places so far and it’s a pretty cool new city to be living in.”

The star centre will add valuable height to the club in 2007, set to get under way at Knox Stadium next Thursday, August 16 when the team takes on the Gold Coast Blaze in the first of four local practice games.

While Horvath doesn’t expect to set the world on fire before the start to the season proper, he is already excited by the thought of a return to the action.

“I think the first practice game will be just to see where we’re at, we probably won’t show them too much of our offence or anything like that so they can dissect it, but we’ll go out there and be working on our defence and it will just be a chance to beat up on someone else rather than beat up on each other all day,” he said.

Despite a solid off-season played out across the Tasman, Horvath is already feeling the effects of coach Heal’s training regime.

“It always helps to get some games in across the off-season, the more games you play the better you become, but I’m still pretty stiff and sore after my first few days of practice and I need to get my legs back,” Horvath said.

And be warned: once he does, Horvath will take no prisoners en route to his Championship dream.