Former Tall Blacks and Otago Nuggets basketballer Craig Bradshaw was sentenced in the Queenstown District Court on an assault charge.

Former Tall Blacks' and Southland Sharks' basketball star Craig Robert Bradshaw has been ordered to pay a $750 emotional harm fee after he was convicted of kicking a bouncer in the head at a Queenstown bar.

Bradshaw, 32, of Auckland, appeared in the Queenstown District Court on Monday seeking an application for a discharge without conviction for the 2014 attack on the basis that the sentence would outweigh the gravity of the incident.

Judge Bernadette Farnan sentenced Bradshaw on one charge of assault with intent to injure and, as well as the emotional harm payment, ordered him to pay a $500 fine along with courts costs.

A media application to photograph Bradshaw was declined.

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Bradshaw denied a charge of assaulting bouncer Gareth Johnson with intent to injure outside The Bunker Bar in Queenstown in on June 13, 2014, but in a judge alone trial on June 14 this year, Farnan found the charge proven.

The court heard during that trial that three men, including Bradshaw, punched Johnson repeatedly after they were refused entry to the bar with Bradshaw holding Johnson by the scruff of the neck while the beating took place. After Johnson fell to the ground, Bradshaw kicked him "like a conversion" as Johnson went to get to his feet. All three continued to punch Johnson after the kick.

Bradshaw argued on Monday, through defense counsel Liam Collins, that a conviction would mean he would be fired from a job he had had for the past three months after being fired from his last job as a result of the incident.

Farnan said there was no reason for her to believe his losing his job was to do with the incident as an affidavit stated the original position with Fuji Xerox had been disestablished.

She also dismissed claims Bradshaw's daughter would suffer as a result of the conviction, as the girl's mother already had a conviction.

"I do not have a sense that you have any remorse," Farnan told Bradshaw. "You have made no formal offer until today to make amends."

The assault was "significant" and the victim, Johnson, had subsequently left his job in security "due to the hit in the head".

"You are much taller and you are bigger than the victim and on this night I assess that he was vulnerable," Farnan said.

Earlier Collins told the court Bradshaw was of "exceptional ... character" and had not previously been before the courts. He argued that a discharge without conviction would be fair as Bradshaw's accomplices on the night of the incident had been given diversion.

"Mr Bradshaw was the best behaved of the group," Collins said. One of the other offenders had "taken Mr Bradshaw down with him".

"Effectively your honour, this is a one-off."

Bradshaw played four years of college basketball at Winthrop University in the United States before playing professionally with clubs in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, South Korea and Latvia from 2007 to 2012.

He represented the Tall Blacks' from 2004 to 2010, making his debut at the 2004 Olympic Games.