Tall Blacks: Have hoops, will travel
As three Tall Blacks rolled their luggage across the St Patrick’s College, Silverstream, gym yesterday, the challenge of their team’s switch to Asia really hit home.
Europe-based players Corey and Tai Webster, and Isaac Fotu, had come straight from Wellington Airport to the team’s training venue after more than 24 hours of travel, arriving just two days before their first World Cup qualifier against South Korea at TSB Bank Arena in Wellington.
The trio and their team-mates will fly out of Friday to Hong Kong for the second game of the window on Sunday, before all return to their respective clubs for matches the following weekend.
Really, it’s a minor miracle their clubs in Germany and Israel released them at all given the tough travel and playing schedule, with assistant coach Pero Cameron saying that wouldn’t always be the case.
‘‘First thing we have to ask is if they are available. This time around a lot of them are.
‘‘I’m not too sure if next February, when it starts getting near the playoffs in their professional seasons, if that will be a doable thing for them.’’
In previous campaigns, the Tall Blacks coaches only had to prepare for the Oceania Championships and trying to beat Australia.
Under the new format, they play at least 12 matches on the path to the 2019 Fiba Basketball World Cup, with the first six, against South Korea, Hong Kong and China, played over three windows between now and July 2018.
But Cameron was seeing the positive in potential player unavailability, with it giving them more opportunities to test their upand-coming players against highlevel opposition, as they did when taking a young team to the Asia Cup in August.
‘‘Providing we get through all the stages, it’s going to be good,’’ he said.
‘‘We get a lot more competition, we get to see more guys at a higher level, we want them to get that experiences. So ultimately everybody is going to improve, which makes the team stronger.’’
One player who has benefited recently through exposure to toplevel play was New Zealand Breakers point guard Shea Ili, who was named in the all-star five at the Asia Cup.
He said that experience, and the upcoming qualifiers, would give the younger players a chance to progress their game.
‘‘It’s more opportunity, especially if guys want to head overseas after playing with the Tall Blacks. It gives you exposure and experience that the young guys need to play at this level.’’
Ili was looking forward to playing with Corey Webster again after they combined so well in the Wellington Saints unbeaten National Basketball League campaign earlier this year.
‘‘We definitely built a little bit of chemistry. We went 20-0 and it’s pretty cool to get out there and get dubs with him.’’