Former coach questions Tall Blacks trip to Venezuela

Former Breakers coach Jeff Green is questioning the sense of sending an under strength Tall Blacks side to the Olympic qualifying tournament in Venezuela.

New Zealand is without Kirk Penney, Tom Abercrombie and Corey Webster for the tournament, leaving them seriously short on experience in their shooting stocks.

Green says the remaining line-up will be nothing short of cannon fodder for the big boys.

He says it's a waste of time going given the cost involved.

"It's a lot of money to be taking an under strength team, and especially taking a 17-year-old."

Webster's 17-year-old brother Tai is one of four debutants in the 12-man squad.

Green says sending the team of rookies to such an important event may not sit well with the people holding the purse strings.

"I suspect the funders such as SPARC would be looking at themselves and saying 'why is Basketball New Zealand doing this with our money, it's for high performance athletes'?"

Jeff Green says the team would be better off going on a development tour to somewhere like China.

Photo: Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic (Photosport)