Basketball: New Zealand in the frame to co-host 2010 world champs

By PETER JESSUP

New Zealand is in line to co-host the 2010 world championships with Australia.

World governing body FIBA is keen to expand the game, especially beyond the Americas, and boss Patrick Baumann was in Wellington yesterday for talks with Basketball New Zealand chief executive David Croker. The visit of the game's top official is kudos in itself and recognition of New Zealand's efforts on the world stage.

But FIBA will want assurances of Government backing before agreeing to send its showcase Downunder.

The likelihood is that New Zealand would host one of the four pools of six teams.

The completion of the Auckland indoor arena is likely to be critical to FIBA's decision. But Oceania representatives who met in Fiji at the weekend were encouraged to go ahead with a proposal.

Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin said hosting a world championships would be "stupendous" for the game in New Zealand. "It's a great dream and I believe in dreaming big."

New Zealand qualified for the next world championships, in Japan in 2006, thanks to the Tall Blacks' fourth place in the US last year.

Accepting the 2010 event would give New Zealand a right of entry.

That would entail Baldwin's keeping the top echelon of players performing on court, and officialdom moving the game forward off it in the intervening years. "That didn't worry him.

"I want to win a gold medal - you can't be more competitive than that. Aiming to make the second round - that's like aiming to lose a few games."

He was confident he had the players to stay competitive on the world stage in the short term. "What I fear for is the long term because we're teaching our kids it's not OK to fight to win, to grind your opposition into the ground, to get them down and kill them off as quickly as you can.

"I think there's something wrong with mediocrity. I'll never accept those objectives. We have to be a nation of winners."

* The Breakers are on the verge of signing Canadian-Auckland transplant Aaron Olson. The 24-year-old 1.94m guard has a NZ mother, qualifying him for his Tall Black debut in this series, and shifted across the bridge after a year at North Harbour.