Tall Blacks continue progress but Steven Adams needed to be ‘legitimate international team'

Australian Boomers has completed its mission to qualify for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics despite lineup changes and injury woes. Australia defeated New Zealand 89-79 in a hard and physical encounter, wrapping up a 2-0 FIBA Oceania Championship series with the help of a string of NBA standouts. Despite the loss, the Tall Blacks showed the team can reach the next level in the international hoops scene, but Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis believes it would only happen if the Kiwis could commit Oklahoma City Thunder big man Steven Adams to don the black jersey.

Lemanis, who guided the Breakers to an NBL title three-peat, was quick to admit that the Tall Blacks continue to get better, citing the improvement of New Zealand guard Corey Webster and Mika Vukona’s consistency. However, the 46-year-old coach is convinced the Tall Blacks can only be a “legitimate international team” if they can get Adams to play for them. “If they can get Steve Adams to play for them in the middle, that's a legitimate international team,” Lemanis said, reports Stuff.

Adams made himself unavailable for the two-game Olympic qualifying series several weeks ago, saying in a short statement that he did not think it would be “the right thing” to join the Tall Blacks at such a late stage in their programme. The 7-foot Adams averaged 7.7 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Thunders. With his size and athleticism, Adams could have certainly boost New Zealand’s chances to win the Oceania series.

However, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova cautioned on making generalisations about NBA players. Dellavedova, who became a fan favourite in the NBA Finals against Golden State Warriors in June due to his pesky defence, claimed that there are a lot of factors that may have affected Adams’ decision to sit out the FIBA Oceania championship. The Boomers guard said that playing for a national team has been always case to case because of possible injuries players may sustain.

Dellavedova, despite coming off a grueling NBA Final showdown, still committed to play for Australia, along with Warriors’ centre Andrew Bogut, who played through the pain of a bothersome sore back. Bogut made a late dash to Wellington to line up for the Boomers and was on court for tip-off barely 20 hours after landing in New Zealand. The 7-foot big man played a little more than 20 minutes, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to help his side.

However, it was not Bogut’s performance that really fired up the Boomers. Dellavedova said Bogut putting his body on the line fired up the team, while Lemanis praised the big man’s commitment to play for Australia despite back issues. "He could've easily said 'look, (my back) is just too sore - I'm not going to play', but it meant something for him to be part of the Boomers' program,” Lemanis said, reports 9news.

Meanwhile, Tall Blacks coach Henare agreed that getting Adams to play for New Zealand would help his side compete against strong teams in international competitions. New Zealand will have another chance to qualify for the Olympics, with a final qualifying tournament in July next year. However, it will be a cut-throat process for New Zealand with elite European teams still in the mix.

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