No fear, no back steps: The Tai fighter code
NZ Breakers’ star offseason acquisition is set to soar, writes Marc Hinton as he returns to where it all started.
WHENTai Webster was a youngster, the driveway family hoops battles were brutal. If he made it past older brother Corey, one of the purest scorers every produced in this country, there waiting for him was dad Tony, a hard-nosed professional schooled in the no-holds-barred game of the ‘80s.
It was little wonder that among the many qualities possessed by the New Zealand Breakers’ latest starting point guard – swag, athleticism, competitiveness and pure playmaking ability sit up somewhere near the top of a long list – fearlessness might just be his most important trait.
Tai was just 17, and still at Westlake Boys’High School on Auckland’s North Shore, when he was thrown into the deep end with the Tall Blacks for the 2012 Olympics qualifying tournament in Caracas. Daunted? He scored a gamehigh 21 points in a victory over Angola as the New Zealanders only missed progressing out of their pool on a countback.
Webster has never lacked belief in his own abilities, nor a desire to mix it with whoever stands in his way. It’s what he was taught growing up in a family where basketball was the currency of success and no quarter was given the moment someone started keeping the score.
Webster remembers those family battles as though they were yesterday. And still has the scars to show for them.
‘‘Just getting my ass kicked every day ... that’s all it ever was,’’ he tells the Sunday StarTimes ahead of the Australian NBL season. ‘‘It was Corey and Dad and me, and we’d play animal 1-on-1-on-1, all of us, first to 21 points. I wouldn’t even come close, but I’d put up a fight, scratch an eyeball or two ... whatever it takes.’’
Now here he is about to suit it up alongside Corey, seven years his senior, for the first time as a professional. They’ve played together many times for country, but until now never on equal terms for club.
‘‘The synergy is there,’’ explains the younger Webster, who last appeared for the club in 2012-13 as a development player. ‘‘He knows what I’m about, and vice-versa. That’s big bro – he taught me how to play the game. It’s going to be great for my family and for all our friends. Mumand dad love to see it. It makesme happier than anyone to be out there with him.’’
Webster shapes as one of the defining off-season additions to the Australian NBL for 2021. He comes in as a local, and starting point guard, but it’s widely appreciated he will bring importlevel quality to the position, as well as a seamless fit alongside his long-time Tall Blacks’ mates at the club.
‘‘These are guys I put on the black jersey with for the Tall Blacks and to put on the Breakers jersey now as well with them, it lights myworld up,’’ says Webster. ‘‘Guys like Tom Abercrombie, Rob Loe andmy brother, I looked up to for a long, long time. To be able to play with them is awesome.’’
Breakers coach Dan Shamir is well aware of the twist of good fortune that came his way when Covid-19 put the world in a tailspin earlier this year. Tai was in Turkey, playing at the elite level in Europe, finishing up his second year with super club Galatasaray, when he decided to return to the relative sanctuary of New Zealand.
One thing led to another and Webster eventually signed a oneyear deal to turn out for the Breakers in the rejigged NBL ’21. Where he goes after this will be reassessed when he has a clearer idea of what the basketball world looks like in the wake of the pandemic.
‘‘Europe was where I wanted to be,’’ says Webster. ‘‘It was the goal to make it over there. I was on my way to trying to make Euroleague [the top continental competition]. I’d made it to the Eurocup, but it was time to readjust the plan. I’ve still got aspirations over there but it’s just a different pathway now.’’
Shamir was rapt to land a secondWebster signature. He wanted Isaac Fotu too, but the big Tall Black eventually returned to Italy to suit up for Venezia. One out of two was not all bad.
‘‘Tai is a huge force and asset for us,’’ Shamir says ‘‘He knows these guys. The last few months we’ve spent together, he’s become one of us. It feels like he played last season with us, and it’s good to have that core that shows theway.
‘‘Tai is a target player. We’ll design a lot of our offensive system according to what he does. You want the ball in his hands. Beforewewere missing a piece to be very good, but once we got himwe knew we have now got everything in place.
‘‘The physical tools are amazing, the skillset, the versatility. He’s powerful and athletic, and has got it all. But I think this seasonwith us will help him too. Whatwe do relatively well is being organised and structured, and having logic to everything we do. I’m hoping it will also make him better.’’
Webster, a bouncy type on and off the court, much more of an extrovert than his more measured brother, has done it tough on a seemingly neverending loop on the practice court. He loves to play, and this season, likely to tip off for the Breakers on January 20 after a couple of false starts due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has been a long time coming.
‘‘I’m going crazy – I’m ready to go right now. It’s got to be the longest pre-season of all time.
But it’s also a blessing to have all that time for us to come together, work out the kinks and figure out the team andwhatwe have.’’
Speaking of blessings, Webster appreciates the pathway he’s been on since leaving Auckland for Nebraska University as a wide-eyed 18-year-old. ‘‘I became aman there,’’ he says of his four years in Lincoln. ‘‘I had no idea where Nebraska even was. But it was a great time as a basketball player and as a man. I had my struggles, like anyone, and there were times I wanted to come home, when I thought I wasn’t good enough, and had doubts about my abilities. But I keptmy head down, worked through it and it made me much stronger, much more resilient.’’
Then came pro hoops. After a year in Germany with Skyliners Frankfurt (15.5ppg, 4.5 apg), he was snapped up by Galatasaray in Istanbul, a hotbed of European basketball.
‘‘Great club, amazing fans, crazy atmosphere,’’ he reflects of two special, eventful years. ‘‘It’s a different world over there around sports. They’re fanatics, they stand up at games and cheer and chant and do all types of things for the entire game.
‘‘It was really exciting and very wild. Some gameswe’d have police around the court, fans trying to get us because they literally hate us like I did something to them other than pull on the jersey that says Galatasaray. It was an experience of a lifetime.’’
It was Turkey. So there were earthquakes in the middle of practice, bombs going off across town.
‘‘Lots of crazy stuff going on
... but that’s kindawhat you signed up for.’’
Now he’ll go head-to-head on a regular basis with the best players in this league. As Webster says, ‘‘I want the big fish; I want [Bryce] Cotton and those guys. Whoever plays my position is getting it. Every night I’m coming for them.’’
Now, sitting across at club ownerMatt Walsh’s house, he is not backing down one iota.
‘‘I can’t wait to show them what I’m about. I’m licking my lips right now. It’s why I play the game— challenges like that get my blood flowing.’’
And Webster likes the group around him. His Kiwi mates. The polished Lamar Patterson. Seasoned seven-footer Colton Iverson. Some quality role players who will knock down the open shots their point guard dishes up for them.
‘‘It’s my brothers as well, literally dudes I grew up playing with. I can’t wait go out and show why we’re the best club and whywe think we have the best team in this league.’’
So, can they secure a fifth title for the club?
‘‘It would be a huge outrage if we don’t win this thing,’’ he shoots back.
No fear. The Webster way.