Henare keen on Adams for Cup
The Tall Blacks have secured a place at next year’s Basketball World Cup — but are no clearer on whether the country’s best player will be available.
New Zealand booked their spot at the tournament with a 97-74 victory over Syria in Wellington on Sunday. The World Cup is in August and September, during the NBA off-season.
Coach Paul Henare confirmed he is in contact with NBA-based Steven Adams but doesn’t know if booking their spot will see him make his international debut.
“He’s a lock, mate, did you guys not hear? No, I’m just kidding,” Henare joked on the Radio Sport Breakfast.
“I’m probably none the wiser either way, to be honest. Long way away to have that conversation but have stayed in contact with him since I got the job. We’ll be doing everything we can to try and make it happen. That decision will ultimately come down to how he’s tracking physically and mentally at that time of year.”
Henare has used 22 players during qualifying but believes he still has some cards up his sleeve for the World Cup including a young duo playing US college basketball.
“There’s probably another handful of guys that haven’t actually played [in qualifying]. Obviously Steve Adams is a big one,” Henare said.
“But we’ve got guys like Sam Timmins [Washington Huskies], Sam Waardenburg [Miami Hurricanes], who are playing their basketball in the States. In a year’s time, another year of development in their programmes over there, they could be knocking on the door as well. It’s a good problem to have but it’s going to be a tough one.”
Henere said he will continue to pick his strongest team for the final two games against Lebanon and Jordan in February, including Tai Webster and Issac Fotu, who missed the most recent games at home.
“We sat down a long time ago, and as a team and a group, we discussed what we wanted to achieve through this thing. The first one was to qualify and the second one was to finish as high as we can.
“We have a shot at finishing one of the top one or two seeds coming out of Asia — that’s our plan.”