Pepper was one of three 7-foot-tall Australian centres selected in the 1997 draft, the others being Chris Anstey and Paul Rogers.

[2] The Celtics never signed Pepper and he came back to the NBL and played for the North Melbourne Giants in the 1998 season.

After the season the Giants merged with cross-Melbourne rivals the South East Melbourne Magic to become the Victorian Titans where he became one of the most dominant centres in the competition.

Despite being a dominant player in the NBL for numerous years Ben Pepper rarely played for the Australian Boomers.

In 1997, he was a member of the gold medal-winning Australian team at the FIBA Under-21 World Championship held in Melbourne.