The New Zealand men's national basketball team is the senior men's national basketball team of New Zealand. The team is nicknamed the Tall Blacks. The Tall Blacks name is one of many New Zealand national team nicknames related to the All Blacks. Over its history, the team has won three FIBA Oceania Championships, and twice appeared in the Summer Olympic Games. It participated in its first FIBA Asia Cup in 2017, finishing in fourth place.
Haka
The Tall Blacks perform a traditional Haka (Māori challenge) before every game, influenced by Pāora Winitana and Paul Henare.
History
There is a long and storied history of basketball in New Zealand, here is a brief glimpse.
1986 FIBA World Championship
The Tall Blacks took part in 1986 tourney staged in Spain. Placed in Group D, finishing with a 1-4 record (13th overall), picking up a 77-75 win over Malaysia.
1999 Oceania Championship
Beating Guam 125-43, the TB's Qualfied for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
2000 Sydney Olympic Games
Finishing 11th with a 1-6 record, the TB's picked up a win against Angola (70-60) in their first ever appearance at the Summer Games. Playing in Group A against the US, Italy, China, Latvija and France.
Sean Marks finished the Tourny with 13 ppg (Points) and 7.3 rpg (Rebounds, 2nd) with a game high 21 points vs. Latvija. Pero Cameron finished the Tourny 2nd in Steals (1.7spg) and also picked up a game high (4) steals vs. Latvija.
2001 Oceania Championship
The Tall Blacks wiped out Australia, in a three-game series 2-1 to qualify for the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis, United States.
2002 FIBA World Championship
Held in Indianapolis, The Tall Blacks stormed out of Group D into the 2nd round with a 2-1 record. Beating China and Russia but suffering a loss to the US.
Finding themselves in the 1/4 finals against Puerto Rico, They picked up the win 65-63, before losing the semifinal to Serbia and Montenegro 89-87.
Playing for the Bronze medal against Germany the sadly lost 117-94 ending with a 4-5 record. To date this has been their best finish at a World Cup / World Championships.
Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron was the only non-NBA player named to the All-Tournament team in Indianapolis.
Phil Jones was listed as 9th best scorer at 19.2 ppg
2004 Athens Olympics
Held in Athens Greece, playing Italy, China, Serbia and Montenegro, Argentina and Spain - The Tall Blacks finished with a 1–5 record defeated the then reigning 2002 FIBA World Championship gold medalists, Serbia and Montenegro, 90–87.
In the play off for 9th position they lost to Australia 98-80 finishing 10th.
Phil Jones (Points) with 21ppg finished 2nd. Mark Dickel (Assists) with 4.5 apg finished 3rd. Dillion Boucher (Steals) with 1.8 spg finished 5th.
2006 FIBA World Championship
Held in Japan, the Tall Blacks were not to repeat their fourth-place finish from 2002. After an 0–3 start, the Tall Blacks rallied into the second round, with two straight wins to close out the group stage. However, they would fall in the round of 16 to the defending Olympic gold medalists Argentina, 79–62. After that disappointment, Tab Baldwin resigned as the head coach of the Tall Blacks, and was replaced by Nenad Vučinić, his longtime assistant coach.
2009 Oceanica Championship
New Zealand once again defeated Australia to Qualify for the 2010 World Championship to be held in Türkiye.
2010 FIBA World Championship
Pitching up in group C (Held in Izmar) playing 5 group games, the TBs made it through to the round of 16 with 3-2 record. Beating Lebanon, Canada and France, but losing to Lietuva and Spain.
In the round of 16, The TBs drew Russia, losing 78-56.
Kirk Penny finished 2nd overall in ppg (24.7).
Their final rank was 12th with a 3-3 record.
2011 Stanković Cup
Competing at the 2011 Boris Stanković Cup in China. They played 3 games against China, Russia, and Angola. After going down to Russia in the first game by just 3 points, the Tall Blacks quickly put that behind them, smashing China in their second game, which led to a good win against a strong Angolan team. Playing Russia in the final who were no match for Tall Blacks star shooting guard Kirk Penney. He scored 30 points, to give the Tall Blacks the win and the gold medal for 2011 edition.
2014 FIBA World Cup
Held in Spain, New Zealand were placed in Group C and finished up with a 2-3 statline in pool play. Recording good wins over Ukraine and Finland, after narrowly losing to Türkiye in their opening match. The Tall Blacks other two loses game against the Dominican Republic and the US.