KEY POINTS:
Lindsay Tait has had to bide his time but tomorrow night the gifted point guard will get his chance to lead the Tall Blacks as they take their first tentative steps into a new era against the Boomers on the North Shore.
Auckland-born Tait made his Tall Blacks
debut in 2003 but the playmaker with the silkiest of skills has struggled for game time behind Mark Dickel and Paul Henare.
Now, with the country's two premier point guards among the host of international retirements that followed the Tall Blacks' failure to qualify directly for the Beijing Olympics in last year's Oceania qualifiers, Tait finds himself one of the team's most experienced hands.
He was wary of declaring that it was his turn to lead but, with the little-experienced Michael Fitchett and Jeremy Kench the other options at point guard, Tait is clearly the senior man.
"As a player you always feel it is your time to some extent," Tait said. "I guess I have had a long apprenticeship under Pauly [Henare] and Sparky [Dickel], two great point guards, and I learned a lot.
"I am a little bit older and wiser now and I have had some experience, so I am confident in my ability."
With star shooting guard Kirk Penney unavailable for the Boomers series and Phill Jones, Dillon Boucher and Tony Rampton among the retirees, the Tall Blacks will be without most of the key players behind their successes of the past decade.
Captain Pero Cameron is the exception but Tait knows it is time for himself and the likes Mika Vukona and Craig Bradshaw to step up.
"I know it is a new situation for our team and Basketball New Zealand in terms of where we are at but I am looking forward to getting in there and having a good shot at it. Hopefully we can accomplish some of our goals."
One of those goals, Olympic qualification in a repecharge tournament in Greece next month, would seem a bit of a pipe dream for such an inexperienced side.
After home-and-away matches against Australia, the team heads to Canada and Slovenia for warm-up tournaments before taking on Cape Verde in their first qualifier on July 14.
Things will get tougher from there though, with international heavyweights Greece, Germany and Croatia among the 12 teams chasing the three remaining Olympic spots.
Coach Nenad Vucinic was confident the 26-year-old would step up. With Kench yet to debut and Fitchett having played only a handful of minutes off the bench, he'll need to.
Tait has endured a wretched run of injuries in recent years, breaking his wrist and leg and dislocating a shoulder. That shoulder injury, suffered playing for Wollongong in the ANBL, required surgery that sidelined him for five months.
He returned for the latter stages of the NZNBL, turning his back on an Auckland team with whom he won three national titles to instead join eventual defeated finalists Wellington.
"It was a big decision but I was at home injured and I weighed up all my options," he said.
"Auckland were in a little bit of trouble at the time so it seemed like the best decision for my family and I. It worked out great. The only thing I regret was that we didn't win. But someone has got to lose. Life will go on."
As it will for the Tall Blacks. The Golden Generation is over. Tait will be a key part of Generation Next.
* ROAD TO BEIJING
Ramsay Shield
Tomorrow, NZ v Australia at North Shore
June 28, NZ v Australia at Melbourne
Tour to Canada
July 1 Canada v New Zealand
July 3 New Zealand v Lebanon
July 4 Canada v New Zealand
Slovenia International Tournament
July 8 New Zealand v Puerto Rico
July 9 Slovenia v New Zealand
July 10 Iran v New Zealand
FIBA
Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Athens, Greece
July 14, New Zealand v Cape Verde
July 16, Germany v New Zealand
July 18, Quarter-Finals
July 19, Semi-Finals
July 20, Third/fourth playoff
