Basketball: Tai Webster signs with Galatasaray

Tai Webster in action for the Fraport Skyliners. Photo / Getty

Tall Blacks point guard Tai Webster will be spending the next phase of his career in Turkey.

Webster has signed a one year deal with Galatasaray, moving on from Germany's Fraport Skyliners as he continues his progression.

The Turkish league is generally perceived to be stronger than the German competition, and in Galatasaray Webster is joining a side with plenty of history.

Galatasaray have won the Turkish Super League on five occasions, were the champions of the second-tier EuroCup in 2015-2016 and then finished 12th in the top-tier EuroLeague a year later.

However, they struggled last season, being knocked out in the EuroCup round of 16 and finishing ninth in the Turkish Super League.

Webster will be hoping to turn that around as Galatasaray bring in a slew of new recruits, including a new coach in Ertugrul Erdogan.

The 23-year-old is also set to get his first experience of European tournament basketball, with Galatasaray set to participate in the EuroCup, alongside his former Skyliners team and fellow Kiwi Isaac Fotu's side, Ratiopharm Ulm.

It is a deserved elevation for Webster after a strong season in Germany, where he averaged 14.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game on superb shooting splits of 47 per cent from the field, 40 per cent from deep and 83 per cent at the free-throw line.

Those performances were good enough to get Webster a deal with the Miami Heat for NBA Summer League, and while he failed to make a notable mark - averaging just 2.5 points on 21.7 per cent shooting in 13.3 minutes per game - Webster's body of work was enough for several European sides to be interested.

Former Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic was said to be keen on trying to lure Webster in his new role as head coach of Italian Serie A side Sidigas Avellino, but in the end, the prospect of Galatasaray proved to be a Turkish delight for the rising Webster.