The Tall Blacks is the nickname of New Zealand's national men's basketball team. The name was chosen as it reminds
people of New Zealand's Rugby
Union team, the All
Blacks. For sponsorship reasons, they are often referred to in New Zealand
media as the Burger King
Tall Blacks.
The Tall Blacks competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished with a
1-5 record, their only win coming against Angola in the playoff for eleventh.
In 2001 they defeated Australia
in a three-game series to qualify for the 2002 FIBA World Championships in
Indianapolis. At the tournament they finished fourth, after beating Puerto Rico in the
quarter-finals before losses to Yugoslavia and Germany. Tall Blacks captain Pero Cameron was the only non-NBA player named to
the all-tournament team in Indianapolis.
The Tall Blacks qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics but again finished
with a 1-5 record and lost to Australia in the playoff for ninth place. Their
most noted moment was on the 7th day of the games, when they beat Serbia and
Montenegro (the world champions) 90:87.
Probably the most well-known New Zealand player in the National Basketball Association
is San Antonio
Spurs forward Sean Marks,
who is in his fifth NBA season. Another New Zealand player, former University
of Wisconsin star Kirk
Penney, signed in 2005 with two-time
defending Euroleague champions
Maccabi Tel Aviv. |
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