Tall Blacks x Comm Games x Medal Time
It’s been 12 years since the last and only time the Commonwealth Games featured basketball as a sport. Must be something about Australia because that was the Melbourne Games in 2006 with the hoops and the Tall Blacks won a silver medal. They’ve now got every chance to do the same in 2018 as they hit up the reinstated tournament on the back of some quality recent results and performances and with, let’s be honest here, not a whole lot to worry about from most of their British Empire rivals.
Paul Henare’s only got this Tall Blacks job to worry about now, dunno if you heard about that slice of news, but the NBL connection will be strong in the squad that he’s picked. European commitments mean that Corey Webster, Tai Webster and Isaac Fotu are all unavailable – taking away three of their better/best scoring options and potentially their three best players – but, with a number of Breaker dudes returning, this team is in the very least a stronger one than the one that went to the Asia Cup a year ago.
Tom Abercrombie and Mika Vukona return after missing the World Cup qualifiers and they’ll be joined by NZB teammates (last season at least, only a couple have been re-signed so far) Shea Ili, Alex Pledger, Rob Loe, Finn Delany, Jordan Ngatai and development player Derone Ruakawa. Ethan Rusbatch is there as well, plus fellow NBL talents Reuben Te Rangi, Jarrod Kenny and Tohi Smith-Milner. Lots of youth on show but fairly strong team with good professional roots and one which should cause some ruckus on the Gold Coast... in a good way.
The consistency and familiarity in this unit is gonna give them an advantage that a lot of other teams won’t have. Not as big of an advantage as they’ll get from certain other teams phoning it in though. Basketball isn’t really a commonwealth sport. It’s a sport that’s distinctly American, with a strong side of central/western Europe, and that doesn’t translate too well into the nations that will be competing on the Gold Coast. How many British basketballers can you name? Luol Deng, sure. Anyone else? Young Toronto forward OG Anunoby was born in London (to Nigerian parents and he was raised in Missouri). It’s not a massive lineage. Same goes for the Scotland team that’ll be competing here. And while India is beginning to contribute a few interesting prospects to the NBA, they’re a long, long way from having the depth to compete on an international level.
Different can be said for Cameroon and Nigeria. Joel Embiid, Luc Mbah a Moute and Pascal Siakam are all from Cameroon. Al-Farouq Aminu and Festus Ezeli have played for Nigeria before, while Hakeem Olajuwon is Nigerian (but played for America internationally after getting citizenship). Old mate Ekene Ibekwe too (although he’s not in the CG squad). But these teams can’t pick their American/European based players because they’re still in season… so what we’ll see here is hardly gonna reflect that legacy. Ike Diogu, playing in China these days, has NBA experience and will lead the Nigerians, along with a few unattached USA prospects. That’s enough to make Nigeria a tricky task but the Tall Blacks will still be favoured to win when they tip off their tournaments against each other on Friday night.
Which leaves two more teams and they’re far and away the two strongest basketball nations represented: Australia and Canada. Aussie are hosts and, all things being good, they should win this thing. Not only the men’s event but the women’s event as well, which would mirror what they did at Melbourne 2006. Obviously none of their NBA guys are around but this team’s a who’s who of Australian NBL talent. Brad Newley is the one bloke to reprise his role from ’06. He’s joined by the likes of Chris Goulding, Damian Martin, Mitch Creek, Cam Gliddon, Dan Kickert… the list goes on. The Tall Blacks have some quality Breakers and some NBL hopefuls. The Boomers have the All Stars.
As for Canada, even without fellas like Cory Joseph, Andrew Wiggins, Jamal Murray, Tristan Thompson and Dwight Powell, they still might have been a genuine threat. But instead they picked a development team, pretty much showing where Comm Games priorities lie for the Canucks… which is somewhere under the doormat, out of sight.
Canada didn’t compete at the 2006 tournament and the 2018 edition clashes pretty badly with both the NBA season and also the US college season (March Madness, matey!). Plus apparently there was some complication with Australian visa requirements, typical Australia. So their squad is entirely composed of Canadian college players. They’ll still be feisty, David Kapinga was the MVP of the national tournament for the University of Calgary, which took place two weeks before he had to leave for Down Under. But they’re also a bunch of kids. All of which adds up to some high hopes for the Tall Blacks.
Twelve years ago New Zealand had big wins over South Africa, Barbados and England, then beating Nigeria 90-66 in the semis before going down 81-76 to Australia in a very competitive final. The Tall Blacks were up by eight in the third. Pero Cameron scored a solid 22 points but Jason Smith hit a couple triples to give the Aussies the lead in the final minute and they killed it off at the free throw line. Luke Kendall was the best for the Boomers with 17 points. There’s one remaining player from that team: Mika Vukona. (Coaches Paul Henare and Pero Cameron played back then as well). Safe to say he’s not one to forget a loss like that.
The gap between these two sides has probably grown since then - even without the best foreign pros of each (remember how good that early 00s Tall Blacks team was). But this is basketball. Chuck a few good ones down and you never know what might happen. After playing Nigeria, these Tall Blacks will get a good look at Australia in their second game, Saturday night, then they polish off their group stage against Canada on Monday. Probably got to win two of those to make the semis automatically, otherwise they drop down to the qualifying finals where they’ll play against one of the two best teams in the second group (England, Cameroon, Scotland and India) for a spot in those semis. The top four teams are all in Group A so nobody gets eliminated straight away… and the Tall Blacks will get a good look at the Boomers early on.
The same format will take place in the Women’s Tournament… except that the Tall Ferns are in the second pool of teams, having to battle with Malaysia, Jamaica and India for the chance to make the qualifying finals. They ought to do exactly that. Micaela Cocks is the only player remaining from the 2006 side that won silver but the likes of Kalani Purcell, Natalie Taylor and Jordan Hunter should anchor a strong enough team to hopefully compete for another medal.
Also included in the squad is 16 year old Charlisse Leger-Walker, whose mother Leanne was an NZ international and so is her sister Krystal, currently at Northern Colorado. Three-quarters of the squad were at the 2017 Asia Cup, where they lost to South Korea in the quarters. No Jillian Harmon though because she’s tied up with her Italian club. The Tall Ferns were the final athletes named for the New Zealand Comm Games Team, by the way.
The seedings are based on world rankings and the Ferns are lingering down at 42nd at the mo’, which explains all that. Good thing then that this is still very early days in the reign of new coach Guy Molloy. Early days in the Asian conference as well. The ranking’s not very flattering but it’s got as much to do with not playing a lot of games as anything else.
The Ferns tip it off against Malaysia on Thursday night and then get a day off before they face Jamaica and India on consecutive dates (Saturday and Sunday). The qualifying finals are on the following Tuesday and then the semis are on next Friday. A medal is going to be tough, Canada’s side is comparatively stronger for the women (even though it’s still largely college players) and Australia are again massive favourites. Yet if the draw breaks right for them then there’s no reason the Ferns aren’t there to add to what’ll fingers-crossed be a record haul of gold, silver and bronze-wear from the Aotearoa team at these Comm Games.
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