Basketball New Zealand

Seven years ago, very few would have believed a basketball game could be a top-rating sports event on New Zealand TV, much less a game featuring the Tall Blacks.

But then, even fewer would have picked the Tall Black men to reach the world championships semifinals (their clash with titleholders Yugoslavia drew a viewing audience of more than 750,000 Kiwis) and finish ahead of Team USA.

Or that captain Pero Cameron would be named among the top five players of the tournament, alongside and ahead of players on multi-million dollar contracts in the NBA.

Or that the Tall Ferns would beat traditional powers China and Korea to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympic quarterfinals.

Or the national men’s team would rise to a ranking in the world’s top 12 after beating the Aussies for the first time on their home turf.

New Zealand basketball has come a long way since our men’s and women’s teams debuted at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. It hasn’t all been luck … plenty of hard work has gone into the meteoric rise of hoops in Godzone.

Welcome to the Basketball New Zealand website, the Home of New Zealand Basketball. Hopefully, it will provide all you need to know about the game more and more Kiwis have grown to love.

It features information on the players, coaches, administrators and referees driving the code here, details on the national and international programmes that give our elite players the chance to perform at their best and the variety of activities that help foster talent through the age-group ranks.

We trust it also serves as a meeting place for the greater basketball community to share ideas and opinions that will help the sport grow even further in the years to come.

Enjoy.