Culture key as Hunt relishes debut Tall Blacks experience

The result didn’t go his way but Jordan Hunt will relish every moment of his New Zealand Tall Blacks experience for the rest of his career - and not just for the basketball.

THE result didn’t go his way but Jordan Hunt will relish every moment of his New Zealand Tall Blacks experience for the rest of his career - and not just for the basketball.

New Zealand fell 81-52 to the Boomers in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifier at the Cairns Pop-Arena, but the game is just one part of the story.

NZ basketball legend Mika Vikuna led the inexperienced NZ team in his 152nd and ultimately last international, using that opportunity to pass on his last lessons in the appreciation of the Tall Blacks culture to a group of men who heeded every word.

New Zealand's Jordan Hunt. Photo: Cameron Laird/FIBA

“The cultural side is as important as the basketball,” Hunt said. “It’s pride in our culture, and in the singlet, and Mika really enforced that.

“We learned a lot about the values of the Tall Blacks.

“Mika is the definition of what it means to be Tall Black. To see he is retiring is a shame, but he’s served that singlet and his country for 16 years. It was an honour to play in his last game.

“You can’t compare it to anything else, it’s the top of your basketball career and it was an amazing experience.”

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The Cairns Taipans development player hasn’t seen much court time in the NBL, with his last significant minutes coming when he was named NZ NBL Finals MVP and won the title alongside Taipans teammates Jarrod Kenny and Jordan Ngatai at the Otago Nuggets last year.

Jordan Hunt (L) and Jordan Ngatai of the Otago Nuggets celebrate victory in the NZ NBL Grand Final. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

But he put in a 22-minute shift on Saturday night, putting up five points and grabbing seven rebounds as he faced off against the next generation of Australian basketball talents.

The Tall Blacks were up against it from the start, forced to rely on only players based in Australia who were outside of NBL teams’ full time rosters and having only limited preparation time.

New Zealand was let down by some wayward passing and breakdowns on both ends, which would have been much improved had they had more time to prepare, but Hunt felt the Tall Blacks were in it until the fourth quarter blew out.

Taine Murray, a development player at the New Zealand Breakers, topscored for the Tall Blacks with 14 points while Houston O’Riley scored 12 points from four perfect shots at range.

The Boomers were led by 23 points from Dyson Daniels, 22 from Reyne Smith and 12 from David Okwera.

Cairns Taipans development player Jordan Hunt at training. Picture: Brendan Radke

The court time was not only a welcome and timely boost for Hunt as a way to measure where his game is, but he will take those learnings into the Taipans camp where he may be leaned upon more heavily during a hectic NBL Cup schedule.

“It was awesome getting on the court and playing,” he said. “Practice at the Taipans is tough, but nothing cane beat playing a game.

“I think it helped me alot in terms of my preparation.

“I tried to work the right play and find the open guys, but I could’ve been more aggressive with my shot selection. There’s a lot to think about, a lot to work on.”

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Originally published as Culture key as Hunt relishes debut Tall Blacks experience