The Tall Blacks' road to qualifying for next year's Paris Olympics will be littered with some of the game's best, with NBA superstars Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Karl-Anthony Towns in their way.
FIBA held the Olympic qualifying tournament draws for the final four spots left in the Paris Games field this morning, with New Zealand drawn into the same event as Slovenia, Greece and the Dominican Republic.
Croatia and Egypt were also drawn in the same bracket.
Only one team can advance from the tournament in Piraeus, Greece, next year - meaning the Tall Blacks will need to pull off multiple upsets to earn their place in Paris.
The format sees the six teams of each event broken into two groups of three with the top-seeded nations after pool play then facing the second-best team from the other group in a semifinal before the two winners then square off for a ticket to next year's Olympics.
The Tall Blacks are guaranteed to play World No.11 Slovenia after being drawn into Group A with them along with Croatia, meaning they'll have to shut down Dallas Mavericks guard Doncic.
Doncic has had an astronomical rise since winning NBA's rookie of the year in 2019, going on to become a four-time NBA All Star heading into this season as well as the top scorer at this year's FIBA World Cup, where he also made the All-FIBA World Cup team.
In Group B, Antetokounmpo and Greece will play Towns' Dominican Republic in pool play with the winner likely dodging a do-or-die clash with Slovenia in the semis, unless the Tall Blacks or Croatia pull off a shocking result.
“These tournaments are something else,” FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said.
“They are six-team tournaments, every game counts, you have 12 of the top 20 teams in the world playing there. Each game could be a quarter-final of the World Cup or a quarter-final of the Olympics.”
The Tall Blacks could be bolstered by the long-awaited addition of their own NBA star in Steven Adams, though. Adams is out of the current NBA season due to surgery on a right knee that has troubled him since January.
That injury ended "positive" talks between Adams and the Tall Blacks for a potential selection in this year's World Cup but with next year's qualifiers not until July, the seasoned NBA centre should be fit to play.
The Tall Blacks have qualified for the Olympics twice, in 2000 and 2004.
Meanwhile, the Tall Ferns will play their Olympic qualifying tournament in China in February.
They need to avoid coming last in a tournament that includes China, France and Puerto Rico to qualify for Paris.
FIBA Olympic Qualifiers
Piraeus, Greece
Group A: Slovenia (World No.11), New Zealand (21), Croatia (30)
Group B: Egypt (41), Greece (14), Dominican Republic (18)
Valencia, Spain
Group A: Lebanon (28), Angola (34), Spain (2)
Group B: Finland (20), Poland (15), Bahamas (57)
Riga, Latvia
Group A: Georgia (23), Philippines (38), Latvia (8)
Group B: Brazil (12), Cameroon (67), Montenegro (17)
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Group A: Mexico (25), Ivory Coast (33), Lithuania (10)
Group B: Italy (13), Puerto Rico (16), Bahrain (69)
SHARE ME