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Sadly, the ‘Tall Blacks’, as the New Zealand men’s basketball team is known, will not be competing at the Tokyo Olympics.

In February, Basketball New Zealand made the decision to withdraw the team, due to the steep costs of trying to quality via international tournaments in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As fans from around the world have pointed out, that’s especially sad because it means we won’t get to witness a pre-match Haka, and the bemused looks from the opposition team watching on.

Take for example this showdown from 2014, featuring the Tall Blacks against Team USA at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

GiveMeSport reports that the video, which began circulating via this tweet, was so widely shared that it ended up being played on ESPN SportsCenter last week.

We’ll get the original footage off YouTube so you can soak in the faces of the US players across the court:

The Haka usually serves the All Blacks pretty well, but the Tall Blacks were beaten 98-71 in the above encounter.

No shame in that, given that Team USA go into any match as favourites, which makes their start to the Tokyo Olympics all the more surprising.

For the first time since 2004, the US men’s basketball team have lost in the Olympics, going down 83-76 to France yesterday in what was the opening match for both sides.

More from The Guardian:

The US had won 25 consecutive Olympic games, last losing at the Athens Games 17 years ago, when they had to settle for the bronze medal…

The loss doesn’t knock the US out of medal contention, but it essentially eliminates the margin for error. They play Iran on Wednesday and then the Czech Republic on Saturday in their final two Group A games, and if they win both they will be in the quarter-finals. Lose another one and the US may not finish in the top eight of this 12-team tournament.

Whilst many of the team’s superstars didn’t travel, like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and James Harden, the team was still expected to win gold.

But it is the Olympics, so nothing should ever be taken for granted.

[sources:givemesport&guardian]