Kiwis proud of 4th-place finish

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Thousands of New Zealanders ate breakfast Sunday as they watched their basketball team's unprecedented quest for a world championship end in a televised semifinal from Indianapolis, Indiana.

New Zealand, known back home as the All Blacks, lost 89-78 on Saturday night to four-time world champions Yugoslavia, a team which had earlier upset the United States in the quarterfinals.

For almost two weeks New Zealand has been transfixed by the performance of their unheralded team which, after qualifying for the championships for only the second time -- beating heavily favored Australia in the process -- surpassed the United States in reaching the tournament's final four.

The New Zealanders finished fourth Sunday when they lost the bronze medal game to Germany 117-95.

Rugby union is officially New Zealand's game -- the national team known as the All Blacks -- and New Zealanders follow that sport with interest which at times approaches obsession.

So great has New Zealand's enthusiasm for basketball recently become that when the captain of the national rugby team was injured this week, ruled out of action for the remainder of the season, the news failed to feature prominently on sports pages or in newscasts.

Stories about the basketball team appeared on the front and back pages of Wellington's daily newspaper, The Dominion-Post, while the injury to All Black captain Reuben Thorne was pushed inside.

Basketball authorities have reported a marked upsurge in interest from children at coaching clinics and at registrations for junior leagues. One chain of national sports retailers reported several stores had sold out of basketballs.

National sports funding authorities have been partly embarrassed by the basketball team's success. When the state-funded organization Sport and Recreation New Zealand recently listed its priority sports, basketball was not mentioned.

The basketball team had received only 160,000 New Zealand dollars ($70,000 US) from the national funding group in recent times. The team derived its largest sponsorship from the hamburger chain Burger King.

New Zealand's achievements in Indianapolis were a surprise because, while many of their opponents have been stocked with National Basketball Association players, the Kiwis are largely a team of semiprofessionals.

Center Sean Marks is the only New Zealander to have played in the NBA, first with the Toronto Raptors and lately for Pat Riley's Miami Heat. With both franchises, he has seen considerably more bench time than court time.

Marks missed the Tall Blacks' quarter and semifinals in Indianapolis because of an eye injury -- the first match on medical advice, the second because Miami refused him permission to play.

Captain Pero Cameron,a 265-pound former rugby player, has played professionally in Malaysia and more recently in England.

Point guard Mark Dickel, now based in Australia, played for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he led the NCAA in assists as a sophomore. Phill Jones has recently signed a contract to play in Italy's Serie A and Kirk Penney, who has attracted the attention of NBA scouts, is based at the University of Wisconson.

Forward Ed Book competed as New Zealand's one naturalized player. Book, an American married to a New Zealand woman, said after the U.S. defeat in the quarterfinals that he was the last American active in the medal rounds.

Coach Tab Baldwin is a Notre Dame graduate who migrated to New Zealand after working on the coaching staff at Florida State University.

Baldwin has stressed his commitment to his adopted nation. When New Zealand beat Australia last year for the first time in 23 years to qualify for the world championships, Baldwin remarked "it's great to be a Kiwi."

On Sunday, Baldwin wrote an open letter to New Zealanders, published in a national newspaper, thanking them for their support.

EMails to the team's website have included several thousand messages of support each day since the tournament began, and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also sent along her best wishes.

"Our run through the world championships has been a dream come true," Baldwin wrote Sunday.

"But most importantly, to know that our hard work and success has brought joy to our countrymen and women means something. It is a rare thing to touch another's life in a way they will always remember. We know we have done this to so many back home."

 

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