THR

NZ is very good at basketball, they are frequent visitors to the world championships and the olympics. Given the size of the country and the worldwide popularity of the game, that is no little achievement.

Why is NZ then so rubbish at all other indoor ball-games? Like volleyball, handball etc? Do you have a culture that at schools during winter when it is too cold for rugby or cricket pupils always only play basketball and nothing else?

hazeandsteve

Never too cold for rugby.....HTFU

Stormer999

Absolutely spot on........

Am Loolah

Ummm ... netball .... Silver Ferns?

THR

I think it is interesting to think about why some countries are good at some sports while the same countries are rubbish at other sports. In some cases the reason is obvious, for example it is easy to understand why countries such as Finland, Sweden or Canada are good at ice hockey when as countries such as NZ or Australia or reversely why the latter mentioned two countries are good at rugby the aforementioned three countries are not.

Cricket and rugby as popular sports in NZ and Australia is a leftover of the British rule, don't you agree, but basketball has nothing to do with Britain where the game is a very marginal sport. I have never met anyone in britain who is remotely interested in basketball.

JohnThePom

This is topical for us as our hostel is currently full of basketball playing teenagers.

I have a theory that NZ has a strong American influence dating back to the war, certainly a lot of the road sign styles, electric plugs and building styles remind me a lot of West Coast USA.

I'm guessing that basketball must be pushed at the junior level to have an ongoing influence in top level competitions. Plus, despite classing it as an 'indoor' sport as it usually is in the UK - it's easy to play outside too.

southerner

We used to be world beating at squash, but that has passed into history. Ultimately it comes down to what parents, coaches and schools encourage kids to do. At our indoor sports centre its all about soccer, mini ball, ripper rugby, netball, tennis and cricket. Other sports are a bit of a minority and may suffer from lack of scale in a small country like NZ

That said - I watched NZ play Oz in ice hockey last year and it was great entertainment, and I thought well suited to kiwis' temperaments. I could see NZ surprising a few of the big teams over the next few years

scrubbedexpat094

What a load of bunkum, I was the only female member of the basketball team at my senior school. I hated netball with a passion. Bit of a rebel me, hate being told where I can & can't go. We used to travel quite a distance to go to games & also watched professional games too. Stadia were always heaving with spectators. There were no end of people who wanted to play basketball at our school & did. Some even go scholarships to UCLA.

But hey I love ice hockey too & regularly used to go to see the Nottingham Panthers.

mickey_d

THR

NZ are currently ranked number 40 by the international ice-hockey federation. If the sport catches on that rank may improve substantially.

The people who dislike soccer for being too slow-paced usually like ice-hockey very much.

cityhog

Can or do you guys watch NBA games in New Zealand? Now it's MLB playoff time. Do you watch baseball? How is David Tua doing these days? He's getting fatter and slower as he gets older, innit?

THR

Ice-hockey is winter-sport and unfortunately NZ does not have the culture of winter-sports. I understand that in some parts of your country in winter conditions are ideal for winter-sports, therefore if you had the culture of people being interested in winter-sports you could have some success in that field as well; obviously not as much as countries such as Austria, Canada, Sweden, Norway or other real winter sports countries but you could be better than you actually are. If NZ were a former Norwegian colony you'd probably would be world-beaters at winter-sports.