Le'afa headlines Tall Blacks' squad for Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Head coach Pero Cameron on Monday named an extended New Zealand squad, featuring Kings' Izayah Le'afa, in contention for the Tall Blacks' upcoming FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Greece – with a place at the Paris Olympics 2024 on the line.

Joining Le'afa in the Tall Black extended squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers are Flynn Cameron, Finn Delany, Ben Gold, Hyrum Harris, Tyrell Harrison, Shea Ili, Jordan Ngatai, Ethan Rusbatch, Reuben Te Rangi, Tom Vodanovich, Sam Waardenburg, Corey Webster and Yanni Wetzell.

In addition, five non-travelling reserves have been named including King #247 Sam Timmins, Taylor Britt, Dan Fotu, Taine Murray and Sam Mennenga.

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These players will be available for selection into the final squad in the event of injury or other unavailability.

The squad of 14 will first travel to Helsinki, Finland on June 20 to compete in a pair of friendly games against top-level European competition; facing world #20-ranked Finland on June 26, followed by world #15-ranked Poland on June 29.

Following this, a final Tall Blacks squad of 12 will travel to Piraeus, Greece from July 2-7, 2024 to participate in one of four Olympic Qualifying Tournaments being run by FIBA.

Joining New Zealand in this tournament will be opponents Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Egypt and the Dominican Republic – with the team that finishes first earning a ticket to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

If the Tall Blacks are able to win this qualifying tournament, they will progress to the Olympics for the first time in 20 years; their last appearance coming at the Athens Games back in 2004.