Tall Blacks to enter basketball cauldron

Tall Blacks Isaac Fotu in action.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Five-time world champions, familiar foes and a basketball-mad country await the Tall Blacks for the World Cup in August.

The Tall Blacks will open their world cup campaign against world no. 2 USA – a country that has won the tournament five times – and could boast a roster stacked with big name NBA players and will be coached by reigning NBA champion coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors.

Their next Group C game is against Jordan. A country ranked seven places lower than New Zealand but with a win over an under-strength Tall Blacks during qualification for this 19th edition of the world cup.

The Tall Blacks will round out the group stage with a grudge game against world no. 9 Greece. New Zealand and Greece met at the 2019 world cup and as long-time Tall Black Jordan Ngatai said of that clash: “we had Greece right there in the hand and then two bad calls go their way and that changes the whole game but that’s basketball you can’t really do much about that.”

Ngatai will undoubtedly be ready for a rematch.

All of the Tall Blacks group games will be played in the Philippines at the Mall of Asia Arena – a 15,000 seater indoor arena in Manila.

Japan’s Okinawa and Indonesia’s Jakarta are the other host cities for the tournament.

Basketball New Zealand chief executive Dillon Boucher was in the Philippines capital for the tournament draw over the weekend and if what he had seen so far was any indication of how the city would embrace the world cup the New Zealanders should expect plenty of support.

“Basketball is number one in this country by far and there is not even a close second.

“The hotel lobby is packed with basketball fans just to be able to get a sighting of Dirk Nowitzki or Yao Ming or Luis Scola and everywhere we go there is fans and there’s thousands of volunteers here just wanting to be a part of this experience.

“So I’m imagining with the USA and Greece those will be sell out games to be able to get their eyeballs on some of the best players in the world and the amount they love basketball I wouldn’t be surprised if the game between us and Jordan was getting a great crowd as well.

“[Filipino fans] are wanting to consume top level basketball and for our players a lot of them won’t have played in front of those environments.”

Now that all 32 nations know who they will face at the flagship event which takes place from 25 August to 10 September the Tall Blacks selectors have three months to put together a team capable of challenging star-studded rosters.

Boucher who played at the 2002 and 2006 FIBA World Cups believes some players will be disappointed not to make the cut.

“We’ll be trying to assemble the best team possible of available players that are fit and healthy, I don’t think there’s going to be too many players out there that are not going to be wanting to play at this world cup and I’d say for those that end up missing out due to injury it will be a pretty sad day.”

The only Tall Black currently in the NBA, Steven Adams, is recovering from a knee injury that has kept him sidelined since January.

Despite the depth of talent coach Pero Cameron has called on for the qualification games the Tall Blacks will have an uphill battle to progress beyond group play and improve on their 19th place at the last world cup.

“Extremely tough pool but when you go to a world cup you’re not expecting any easy pools or any favours so now it’s up to the guys to do the best preparation possible to come out ready to try and come top two in the pool and advance through to the top 16,” Boucher said.

BBNZ is promising a “fantastic” build up for the team against some high level opponents with training camps beginning once the New Zealand NBL wraps up in late July.