Six NBL players named in Tall Blacks squad

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Six NBL players have been named in the New Zealand Tall Blacks squad for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers in Manila, Philippines from 24-28 February 2022.

Hyrum Harris (Adelaide 36ers), Rob Loe (New Zealand Breakers), Dion Prewster (Melbourne United), Brayden Inger (Cairns Taipans), Taane Samuel (Brisbane Bullets) and Tom Vodanovich (Sydney Kings) are the NBL players to be named in the team.

The Tall Blacks will face the Philippines, Korea and India during the Qualifiers.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve been in action, our last time being against the Boomers in Cairns last February,” New Zealand coach Pero Cameron said.

“I think it’s great that we’re back playing, especially given everything that’s happening in Australasia at the moment with Covid. We’re going into a different country and we’ll be relying on FIBA and the local basketball federation to help us make this a success.

“And we know these things are always tentative; we’ve had these windows postponed and cancelled in the past so you always have to be ready for anything.

“It’s a good squad and I’m excited by it, we’ve got a solid mix of vets with good leadership and they get an opportunity to go out there and get some minutes, and we’ve got some great young guys too who I’m looking forward to see play.

“We’ll have several debutants who will wear the black singlet for the first time, so obviously they’ll be looking forward to that experience.

“The likes of Taane Samuel, who gets an opportunity after having a great year with Wellington last season in the NZNBL; he’s one of several good players coming through who performed well last year and earned this opportunity for himself.

“It’ll be interesting to see how they go in the black singlet, players like Brayden Inger and Taki Fahrensohn, young Joe Cook-Green who’s been over in Perth the last couple of years.

“We’ve also got a couple of guys returning to the Tall Blacks after being in the Aussie NBL, solid players like Tom Vodanovich, Dion Prewster who’s been with Melbourne, Rob Loe who’s been at the Breakers.”

The Tall Blacks travelling squad of 14 players for the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers is: