Basketball: Appeal launched against ban on Olson

By PETER JESSUP

Rules on international eligibility will deny the Tall Blacks the use of shooting guard Aaron Olson for the remaining two games of the Olympic qualifying series against Australia.

Olson was ruled out of the first game at Bendigo just six hours before the teams were due to take the court, though the 79-66 loss was down more to a slow start, a flat first half and a poor shooting percentage than any mental throw-off or lack of depth.

But the advantage immediately goes to the Australians for games two and three because they can use 10 players and New Zealand only nine.

International governing body FIBA stipulates that once a 10-man national squad is chosen for Olympic qualifying, no changes can be made, even for injury.

At the pre-game technical meeting in Bendigo at 11am Australian time on Monday, the issue of Olson's eligibility came up when birth certificates for all players were presented to the FIBA Oceania committee, which then ruled him out.

Basketball New Zealand had not considered it an issue until then. Olson had already played for the national team in the series against the Czech Republic and at the Six-Nations World Cup in Turkey. But FIBA sanctioning was not required for those games.

The 25-year-old was born in Canada to a Canadian father and New Zealand mother, raised there, but never represented that country at age-group tournaments.

Basketball NZ will appeal against the FIBA Oceania ruling. It wants Olson for the Athens Olympics next year. The Boomers and Tall Blacks qualify because of the second Oceania spot New Zealand gained with their fourth placing at the world championships last year.

But the appeals process takes weeks.

"It hinges on the interpretation of the word 'acquired'," Crocker said.

FIBA's interpretation is that Olson acquired his New Zealand nationality when he first applied for a passport, aged 21. He already held a Canadian passport.

Basketball NZ will argue that he acquired New Zealand nationality when he was born to a Kiwi mother.

The team must engineer a big turnaround for game two in Geelong tonight.

Captain Pero Cameron's injured index finger clearly showed in his scoring rate in Monday's match and that's unlikely to improve. Coach Tab Baldwin was concerned at the loss of structure from the team. Kirk Penney top-scored with 22, including three, three-shots to close the gap in the third quarter, but his returns came from broken play and the rest of the offence struggled.

Phill Jones and Cameron shot just 7 points each, Tony Rampton and Ed Book, 8.

The game was effectively lost after the first quarter when the Australian shooters were left open too many times and their long-range accuracy hurt. They sank 45 per cent of their shots, the Tall Blacks, 25 per cent.

The Tall Blacks won the second half - scoring 41 points to 25, with improved defence. But of concern there was the three-to-one foul count.

Baldwin conceded a game-play win to his counterpart Brian Goorjian, who had approached the officials Aussie Michael Aylen and Kiwi Ken Coulson at halftime to ask why the penalties were going against his side. It was Tall Blacks 15, Boomers 5 in the second half, and Cameron and Dillon Boucher were one foul away from being eliminated from the game.

Game three is in Melbourne tomorrow night.