Tall Blacks stars to miss the Asia Cup
The Tall Blacks will use the Fiba Asia Cup in August to gain experience, with their focus set squarely on the World Cup qualifiers to follow later this year.
Coach Paul Henare confirmed his intent in a statement yesterday.
‘‘After some considerable thought and many conversations, I have decided – with the blessing of Basketball New Zealand, to name a largely inexperienced team for the Asia Cup in August,’’ he said.
‘‘We were already facing the prospect of playing without a number of our key players, for one reason or another, and given there are upcoming windows that carry much more significance for our programme, I have had to prioritise those opportunities in planning the next three years.’’
Those who were already set to be absent include the Webster brothers – Corey and Tai – who are chasing their NBA dreams; Mika Vukona, who is resting ahead of the 2017-18 NBL season, and Rob Loe, who is getting married.
It remains to be seen who else will join them in missing the tournament, though it will definitely mean no appearance for the country’s only current NBA player, Steven Adams, who was unlikely to feature in the first place.
The Tall Blacks are competing in the Asia Cup for the first time this year, following changes to the structure of world basketball that have had big implications for New Zealand and Australia.
Instead of competing against each other in the Oceania region, they have joined the Asian region, and they now face a series of games to qualify for the World Cup, rather than a two-legged playoff and a repechage process.
Those qualifiers begin in November, with the Tall Blacks playing at home against South Korea and away against Hong Kong.
The Asia Cup will carry implications for World Cup and Olympic qualifying in the future, but it doesn’t this time around, allowing Henare to look at his options.
‘‘It would be unfair and unrealistic on the playing group to expect everyone to be available at every opportunity,’’ Henare said.
‘‘It is simply not possible from a player welfare point of view.
‘‘The next 10 months especially will be full on and without a break for our leading players if we were to bring them in from July for this Asia Cup.’’
The new-look Tall Blacks will assemble in camp in Auckland on July 20 ahead of the tournament, which is being held in Lebanon and begins on August 6.
Henare is currently on tour in China with the New Zealand Select team, and it is likely members of that squad could make the cut.
He said that even if they were without their leading players, the Tall Blacks would not let their standards slip.
‘‘Whatever team we assemble there is an expectation that they will do all they can to live up to the heritage and culture of the black singlet.’’