Hills created a mountain of trouble for referees
Stan and John Hill are legendary Tall Black basketballing brothers but hardly lookalikes.
Yet back in the early-1980s the burly brothers looked similar enough to confuse Asian basketball referees at an international tournament in Taiwan.
When the Tall Blacks played at the William Jones Cup competition, at the time a rare foray to the international arena, the Hills confounded the referees by swapping places at the free throw line. It is one of a number of interesting anecdotes detailed in The History of New Zealand Basketball written by Wellington’s Roger Booth and just released for sale.
Stan was by far the better shooter of the two, especially from the charity stripe, his skills honed by a stint at American college San Jose University, while John’s forte was lending his powerful 2m frame to getting a plentiful supply of rebound ball.
So, under long-time coach Steve McKean, the players conceived a plan whereby when John Hill was fouled it was Stan who stepped to the line for the free throws.
Invariably there would be some sort of delay before the shots were taken to break the play’s continuity.
The short Asian referees stretching up to see a mass of arms and legs struggled to identify who was who with both Hills towering over them. So Stan would calmly walk to the line, invariably net both free throws, and trot back down court. Some opposition coaches got wise to the deception and began protesting but usually by then the shots had been taken, counted and play had carried on.
‘‘We actually tried the same trick on other occasions with European referees but they could tell us a part and it didn’t really work,’’ said Stan. ‘‘But it was fun while it did.’’
Another concerned the New Zealand women’s team which was scheduled to play South Korea in a test match on a Sunday in Wellington in 1968. It was the first visit by any overseas country’s national basketball team, apart from Australia, to play in New Zealand.
The visitors had been playing in Australia and said they wanted an audience with then New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Keith Holyoake to make a presentation with the tour being a joint flag-waving/sporting goodwill visit.
While flummoxed by the request on match morning but keen to avoid any sort of diplomatic incident Booth, as then Wellington Basketball chairman, thought quickly.
He arranged for some basketballers’ cars to take the team to Government House that morning and when an official door knocked on the door, it was the PM who answered.
The situation was explained and soon enough Holyoake was welcoming the team into his residence for an impromptu function.
Holyoake gave a brief speech welcoming them and, apart from calling it the South Korean badminton team, which was not discovered by the Korean-speaking audience, all went well with Holyoake joining them and posing for a photograph with the players.
The book covers the game’s fledgling beginnings in this country in the 1950s through to the arrival of numerous overseas imports, largely American, in the 1980s as the successful national league sprang up. It records the growing stature of the Tall Blacks and Tall Ferns who made several Olympics appearances and the memorable 2002 Tall Black would championship campaign.
The book’s South Island launch will be held in Canterbury today at the Christchurch Arena with former Tall Blacks coach Keith Mair, Tall Blacks players Bert Knops and Stu Ferguson and Tall Ferns Jame McMeeken and Sally Farmer among those attending. It is followed by both Canterbury teams playing in their respective national leagues.