Wynyard: This thing ain’t over
Basketball
Young Kiwi basketball star Tai Wynyard is just hoping to catch a break after a tumultuous couple of years at the University of Kentucky that saw, among other things, the bemused Aucklander face a bizarre accusation of taking a gun-toting bodyguard to a campus party.
It is fair to say that Wynyard’s American college experience so far – he still hasn’t called time on it – has been challenging, and compounding matters for the 20-year-old former Tall Blacks teen prodigy is that he is now dealing with a serious back problem that has threatened to derail his hoops career completely.
But Wynyard is nothing if not a fighter, which figures, the chip off the old block he is as son of multiple world champion woodchopper Jason Wynyard. He is not about to give up on his basketball ambitions yet, despite the obstacles that keep being put in his way.
Wynyard had a hugely challenging couple of years at Kentucky where he arrived as a wide-eyed teenage redshirt from New Zealand with high hopes of riding the collegiate system’s most prolific conveyor belt of NBA talent all the way to the big league.
That did not quite play out as planned, to say the least. He played just 97 minutes across two seasons with the Wildcats, scoring a mere 19 points. In the end, frustrated with his lack of opportunity, he transferred out of the university which brought its own set of issues.
Under arcane regulations adopted by the NCAA, transferring student athlete have to sit out a season. So, Wynyard, who is hoping to finish his career at Santa Clara, in California, has to spend another season not playing hoops.
That’s not quite as exasperating as it might otherwise have been, because the 2.08 metre centre is also dealing with major back issues that forced him to shut his final season down prematurely at Kentucky.
Stay patient, we will get to the gun scandal soon.
First his two years at Kentucky: As frustrating as it was to play so little hoops, and fail to showcase his talents as he hoped, Wynyard is adamant he has not been soured by the experience.
‘‘I’m definitely taking all the positives. It was a great basketball education. I didn’t play too much which sucked, and is why I had to get out of there
‘‘But It was a good time, and I’m not going to get too down on it. I was able to meet a lot of great guys, and I learned a lot on the practice floor. You’re around guys who go to the NBA and get pretty much treated like pros in everything you do.’’
Unbeknownst to Wynyard, while he was trying to earn playing time at Kentucky, he was doing some serious damage to his back.
He has not played any basketball since last December and has been on a major rehab and strengthening progamme ever since.
‘‘There’s a disc bulge in there … a lot of stuff going on. I’m still having to get MRIs even now. But it’s OK now with management and rehab to play. It’s a long-term thing, and I’m going to have to be doing rehab pretty much my whole life. I messed it up over in Kentucky.’’
Wynyard makes a tentative return to the basketball court this weekend at the HoopNation tournament in Tauranga with the Rack City team. And he’s adamant his ambitions remain alive.
‘‘I can fight through this,’’ he says. ‘‘I just need to do my rehab, keep doing my core exercises and I’ll be right. This isn’t the end of anything. The dream is still in my heart. l want to get to the NBA, and I’m trying to find that path still.’’
That pathway is where things get a little fuzzy. Wynyard was going to sign as a development player (and retain his college eligibility) with Melbourne for this year’s NBL. But his back issues kiboshed that.
Now the intention is either to head to Santa Clara for the 2019-20 college season, or seek a professional opportunity. He’ll know more as he gets back into basketball shape, which will be a challenge after so long off the court.
‘‘This weekend will help me see where I’m at, and how my body is going. I just haven’t played very much over the last few years so it will be fun to play some games.’’
And the gun incident? Kentucky’s
reported back in February that university fraternity and sorority members had used a group messaging app to warn each other about a potentially dangerous student who allegedly carried a gun to a party to protect Wynyard.
Wynyard is keen to set the record straight on what he calls a ‘‘misunderstanding’’.
‘‘Kentucky didn’t want me to say anything, and that was hard for me. I didn’t know what the heck was going on. I didn’t know he had a gun, or he was supposed to be my bodyguard.
‘‘Why would I need a bodyguard? I’m not a star player. And for me as a New Zealander, I would never think of taking a gun anywhere. When that came out, it killed me. I wanted to say something, but they wouldn’t let me.’’
Wynyard did know the young man who brandished the gun at the party. But that’s all.
‘‘I didn’t even go with the kid to the party . . . I saw a fight and I went over to try break it up. Then they were yelling ‘he’s got a gun, he’s got a gun’. I stopped the fight and told the kid to get the hell out of there. Everyone thought he was with me because I was kicking him out.
‘‘I was just trying to break up a fight. If I knew he had a gun I wouldn’t have gone near him. I don’t want to be shot at or something crazy.’’
Like so much of Wynyard’s Kentucky stay, he’s chalking it up to experience. Courier Journal