Tall order for Tall Blacks

New Zealand’s Tall Blacks face an uphill battle to qualify for the Olympics, with a make-or-break Qualifying tournament in Greece this week. 

If the prospect of getting past five other nations hopeful of an appearance in Paris isn’t daunting enough, consider who those teams are; Luka Doncic’s Slovenia in the group stage, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece in the next phase among them. 

Croatia, Egypt and even the Dominican Republic, ranked 19th in the world, all have lofty ambitions of their own, meaning it’s going to be an almighty task for Pero Cameron and his team.

The two top teams from each of Group A (NZ, Croatia, Slovenia) and Group B (Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece) will face off in the Semi Finals, before the Olympic qualifier is decided in a Final on Monday, July 8. 

Six NBL25-rostered players will be feature across the Tall Blacks’ roster, including new Sydney Kings signing Izayah Le’Afa, Phoenix man Tom Vodanovich, Melbourne’s Shea Ili and Flynn Cameron, Brisbane’s Tyrell Harrison and Breakers local Sam Mennenga. 

New Zealand Tall Blacks schedule
Thursday, July 4 – v Croatia – 12.30am AEST
Friday, July 5 – v Slovenia – 12.30am AEST
Semi Finals and Final to be played on July 6 and 8, with times TBC.