Basketball: Catching Tab on the rebound

Does it feel weird waking up and not being the Tall Blacks coach?

It feels very strange. A lot stranger than I thought it would feel - I don't really know why. I was prepared to make the decision and I don't second-guess the decision; I know the reasons behind it were completely valid.

I'm comfortable with those reasons but it just feels really strange not to be the national coach because it's just governed so many of my thoughts for the past six years. It's not comfortable, it's not easy, but I'm sure over time it will become a natural state for me.

Was coaching the Tall Blacks becoming a drag or did you still get the same buzz as you did when you started?

I've been looking forward to the 2006 world champs since the end of 2002.

I haven't talked about it very much but it was always an absolute goal of mine to be with the team through to 2006 in Japan and to do well there. I've been focused on that goal for a long time and a lot of my energy and a lot of my coaching over the last four years has been geared for this championship, so I was almost beside myself with excitement for this one.

You went in ranked as 17 in the world and made the top 16, so do you consider yourself to have done well there?

The simple answer is we didn't do well. I can't hide from that. I don't think our performances were up to the standard we would expect from ourselves. Forget results for a second: If you look at 2004 [Athens Olympics] and simply looked at our results, a lot of people would say they were disappointing, but that was so far from the truth. Our performances at Athens were close to unbelievable. But as much as I would defend our performance there, I cannot defend our performance this year in Japan.

It still bothers me. In the day, in the night, when I wake up, when I go to sleep - why? I can't quite put my finger on it. Not at all. Nenad [Vucinic, assistant coach] and I have talked about it and there's things we'll review in the future, me simply as a guy sitting on the sidelines looking at how Nenad's preparing the team, if he becomes the coach.

But I can't pinpoint one single factor, or even a combination of factors, that I'm certain caused the team to be sub-par.

The team doesn't know. Believe me, it was eating at them as much as it was eating at the coaching staff. We didn't seem to have energy. We didn't seem to have much enthusiasm. We didn't play with the same fire and determination. None of us took it for granted or thought it was OK. It really ate away at us.

Aside from one half against Japan, and really the game against Argentina when we stood up and played some pretty tough basketball - not great basketball, but tough basketball - but aside from those appearances, we played our best basketball against Australia [prior to the tournament].

Can I suggest the surprise element has gone? Because there's not enough depth in New Zealand basketball, you can't keep refreshing the squad and everyone knew what to expect from the Tall Blacks this time around.

I'm sure there's an element of that involved. I'm sure that our itinerary this year had a lot to do with it.

I'm sure the fact I was a coach who has been giving a fairly consistent message, although different tactics, for six years had something to do with it.

You know, when it came to motivation my voice probably started having a background noise effect to it rather than being able to bring them to a razor's edge. Who knows?

All of these things are possible and probably all of them had something to do with it, but I can't sit here now and say any of them definitely were factors and that any one was primary.

Is New Zealand basketball in better shape now than when you took over?

Very much so. If you're talking just men's, definitely; if you're talking men's and women's, absolutely. We now have what I think are some really talented young players that we haven't seen here yet. We now have some size in our young players that we've never seen.

We've done a job over the last several years of identifying New Zealand players who have never played here in New Zealand, who have played in Australia and the United States, and they will be coming into the frame in the next few years.

Our NBL is a stronger, deeper competition than it was a few years ago. I know it might not have the lustre to it that it used to and maybe it doesn't have the financial strength that it used to, but there are more good players playing in the NBL.

The introduction of Australian imports a few years ago is an idea that has strengthened the league as well.

Have the Breakers been good for New Zealand basketball as a whole?

The Breakers have potential to do great things for basketball here, but we have to sit back and watch with a critical eye as to what the Breakers do. It's not because I'm sitting on the outside and want to be critical of what's going on in the inside, but I genuinely want to watch for a decade what they do for the sport in this country before making any strong endorsements or accusations.

We have to watch and see how they approach the use of New Zealand basketball players. We have to see whether there is going to be a continued emphasis on Australian players playing for the Breakers because if there is, that won't do much for New Zealand basketball; or whether there is going to be more emphasis on bringing more New Zealand players through.

The hiring of Judd Flavell and the fact they're going to have a development programme is a very good thing because they can professionalise some young players very early and that can have positive spin-offs. But it's too early, as at today, to say whether the Breakers have been a positive force or a negative force. It's still up in the air.

Any plans for your future that might have firmed up in the past week?

Not at all.

Is Europe where you see your future?

That's my ambition. However, if an attractive job came up in South America, Asia, or Australia and New Zealand for that matter, I'd certainly look at it. But right now my ambition is to get back to Europe and coach and ultimately be a head coach at a Euroleague [basketball's equivalent of the Champions League] club. It's the strongest competition outside the NBA. That's where I want to be; I'm probably further away from it now than I was last year when I was coaching in Turkey. But I do believe that I'll land a job in Europe some time in the next few months and I'll work at achieving that goal in the next few years. Down the track, I'd absolutely look at international basketball again, but I'm putting that on hold for the foreseeable future.