Steven Adams missing from Tall Blacks squad

Steven Adams won’t play at the Basketball World Cup.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

NBA centre Steven Adams has not made the Tall Blacks 21-strong extended squad for the upcoming Basketball World Cup.

Adams suffered a knee injury playing for the Memphis Grizzlies in January and Tall Blacks coach Pero Cameron said despite “good and productive conversations” with the 29-year-old, he would not make his New Zealand debut in the Philippines in August.

“He was considering a lot of things; but he suffered a pretty serious knee injury,” Cameron said.

“We just wish him all the best to get back on his feet and for playing again in his next NBA season.”

Also missing from Cameron’s extended squad are Tom Abercrombie and Rob Loe who both recently retired.

The World Cup roster can only have 12 players so Cameron will assess the 21 chosen athletes over the next month, before trimming the list down to 18 players to attend a Tall Blacks training camp in Auckland in late July.

A Tall Blacks squad will then travel to Japan, Germany and China as part of a pre-World Cup preparation tour, with a final squad of 12 athletes selected prior to the start of the FIBA World Cup on 27 August.

Cameron described his squad as “exciting and dynamic” with many familiar faces from both the qualifiers and Asia Cup teams – as well as some new inclusions.

“We’ve lost a couple of really good players who have moved on this year, in Tom [Abercrombie] and Rob [Loe], and both we and the athletes realise the huge commitment and preparation required for this World Cup and everything leading up to it – it’s not taken lightly.

“We’re excited to see which new players can step into those gaps and that’s what the recent FIBA windows have been about; building depth as well as well as qualifying [for the World Cup].

“Player availability around these different windows has been a curse and a blessing for us to be honest, the positive is that it’s allowed us to see a lot of players and for them to get experience at that level.”

Cameron sees the next two months as an important time to evaluate and assess the extended squad on a number of levels.

“Campaigns [like the pre-World Cup tour] are good for a number of reasons, not just helping to choose good combinations in your final group but giving these players experience against top teams – just getting them battle-ready for the World Cup.

“For us we get to see how players perform under stress too; there’s a lot of travel and a lot of different cultures and variables they’ll encounter and deal with – all the while focusing on their performance on the court. That’s want we want to do, perform at our very best and do well, as the World Cup is a massive event and it doesn’t really get biggest than this for the athletes and our Tall Blacks programme.

“So we’ll all put in the hard yards to get there and we don’t want to let anyone down – we’ve got high expectations within our group and we’re preparing to be at our very best for this FIBA World Cup.”

The FIBA World Cup 2023, is set to take place from 25 August to 10 September with New Zealand facing the United States, Greece and Jordan in the group phase in Manila.

Tall Blacks extended squad

Corey Webster, Canterbury Rams / Perth Wildcats

Dan Fotu, Franklin Bulls / NZ Breakers

Ethan Rusbatch, Hawkes Bay Hawks

Finn Delany, Telekom Baskets Bonn

Flynn Cameron, Melbourne United

Hyrum Harris, Hawkes Bay Hawks / Perth Wildcats

Isaac Fotu, Utsunomiya Brex

Izayah Le’Afa, Wellington Saints / NZ Breakers

Jordan Hunt, Hawkes Bay Hawks

Jordan Ngatai, Hawkes Bay Hawks

Kruz Perrott-Hunt, Auckland Tuatara

Reuben Te Rangi, Auckland Tuatara / S.E. Melbourne Phoenix

Sam Mennenga, Cairns Taipans

Sam Timmins, Otago Nuggets

Shea Ili, Melbourne United

Tai Webster, Otago Nuggets / Perth Wildcats

Taine Murray, Virginia Cavaliers

Taylor Britt, Canterbury Rams

Tohi Smith-Milner, Wellington Saints

Walter Brown, Canterbury Rams / Tasmania Jackjumpers

Yanni Wetzell, Alba Berlin