Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Basketball NZ has had to sacrifice the Tall Blacks tilt at Tokyo to commit to the next Fiba cycle.
The Tall Blacks’ Olympic dream for Tokyo 2021 is officially over after Basketball New Zealand were forced to make the brutal call to withdraw from the qualifying tournament in Serbia because of a crippling cost blowout. Basketball NZ chief executive Iain Potter told
Stuff the decision announced on Friday to withdraw New Zealand men’s teams from the Olympic qualifying tournament in Belgrade (June 29-July 4) and the 3X3 OQT in Austria (May 26-30) had been one made reluctantly, but with absolute clarity by the board. Players’ representatives had been consulted throughout the process.
Serbia
Puerto-rico
Australia
Tokyo
Japan
New-zealand
Dominican-republic
China
Italy
Austria
Canada
Senegal