An Alley Oop To International Hoops #2
The Tall Blacks vs Team USA. New Zealand vs America. Aotearoa vs *insert American Indian name for America here*.
David vs Goliath.
Goliath won. But, the Tall Blacks definitely didn't disgrace themselves in a battle against the very best ballers in the world. It's pretty hard to see many teams being able to stop a rampant Anthony Davis and Kenneth Faried, especially when your big lads aren't nearly as athletic as those two. But hey, we tried.
It was interesting to see game time spread throughout the squad as Coach Vucinic must have had a slightly genius train of thought that the Tall Blacks might struggle. We got to see the likes of Isaac Fotu, Everard Bartlett and Jarrod Kenny get a decent run and it was also lovely to see BJ Anthony get plenty of action and finish as our top scorer with 11 points.
Besides that, it's pretty hard to take too much from the game. The Tall Blacks obviously couldn't match the athletic ability of the Americans while also struggling to make stops in the half court. The last thing we want to do is do what the Americans have done and say that the Tall Blacks were just happy to be out on the court with this super duper best in the world group of crazy talented basketballers from the basketballin' powerhouse ... the Tall Blacks definitely did their best to provide competition instead of providing an audience.
So where do we sit? Well we've lost three games, not the best start to a World Cup but they have two very winnable games against Ukraine and Finland. I say winnable because we haven't really seen the absolute best from the Tall Blacks yet. If the likes of Tom Abercrombie, Kirk Penny, Rob Loe and the Webster bros can all find some hot form at the same time it's a realistic option that we win both those games. And they'll have to find a way to defend their basket like it's the last piece of steak on the barbie.
Whatever you do, don't be down on the Tall Blacks. People might look at the results and talk a bunch of shit about how pointless this all is, but how can you not enjoy seeing a kiwi basketball side on the world stage? Cheer up and support em.