Henare plays long game
PAUL Henare is taking a big risk with his beloved Tall Blacks.
But it’s one the national men’s basketball coach is prepared to take as he looks to build the depth he believes his team needs to survive, and even thrive, on the modern international hoops landscape.
By electing to use the current Fiba Asia Cup campaign as essentially a development tool, as well as a chance for his senior stars to get an extended off-season rest, Henare risks both cheapening the Tall Blacks jersey and undermining the team’s hardearned international reputation.
But it’s a roll of the dice he is prepared to take.
Faced with a growing list of defections, Henare made the big call to give all his established players the international season off. That left him with essentially an under-23 type group to take to the team’s first appearance at the Asia Cup in Lebanon on August 8-20.
But Henare might just get away with it because of the legitimacy of his reasons and the goodwill in his intentions.
For starters, Tall Blacks, as opposed to All Blacks, essentially volunteer their services. It is an unpaid vocation, especially in New Zealand where the funding agencies have yet to get their heads around the differences between legitimate global sports, and, well, playing netball or hockey.
Tall Blacks do it for the love of their country and because, frankly, it’s a pretty special brotherhood in the team. They earn their money the rest of the year.
When Henare started plotting this campaign it became apparent he was going to be down on troops. Mika Vukona is rebuilding his battered body and was a reluctant starter. Alex Pledger, too, needed to clear up a concussion issue post the Kiwi NBL.
The Webster brothers, Corey and Tai, were both chasing their NBA dreams, and it was difficult for them to commit.
Then American college standouts such as Tai Wynyard, Matt Freeman, Jack Salt and Sam Waardenburg were all ruled out.
Henare could have taken a mixed group, with Tom Abercrombie, maybe Corey Webster, Isaac Fotu and the Perth-based Jarrod Kenny as his senior pros.
But then it dawned he had the chance to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone.
Soon the Tall Blacks will enter the World Cup qualifying process, which will take place in six designated windows between November 2017, and February, 2019, and this was a chance to rest key men ahead of that commitment.
Also, he desperately needs to develop the next tier of top Kiwi talent, and this campaign will fast-track that process with five debutants and young comers like Shea Ili, Finn Delany and Reuben Te Rangi emerging as his senior leaders by default.
‘‘I’m always going to do right by the singlet,’’ declares Henare, as passionate a Tall Black in his day as there was. ‘‘Think of the scenario of playing China at home next July and we have to win to get through to the second round of World Cup qualifiers. If players are unavailable suddenly you’re saying ‘OK guys, we haven’t used you at all, but now we need you to come in and play China in a game with a lot hanging on it’.
‘‘This is the best way right now for them to gain experience and exposure against high quality, high intensity opposition. So if that time comes when their number is called down the track, they’re not totally unprepared.’’
Henare says the way he’s ‘‘building depth’’ is no different to what China is doing with its dual national squads and even Australia going entirely with NBL players in their Boomers squad.
‘‘There is no greater learning experience than being thrown in the deep end and seeing if you can swim,’’ adds the Tall Blacks coach with a knowing grin. Let the splashing begin. MARION VAN DIJK/STUFF