Basketball New Zealand

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NZ Tall Black guard Paul Henare (Photosport)

NZPA
Tall Blacks veteran Paul Henare will not feature in the basketball team’s quest to make this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Henare (28) has confirmed he is taking the year off international basketball in an attempt to prolong his career.

Having missed the early part of the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers’ Australian National Basketball League season after knee surgery, Henare said he needed a break.

He said he wanted to extend his time in the sport and the rest would allow him to strengthen his legs.

“It’s just for this year. I needed a break and, as for the future, what will be will be,” Henare said.

Henare has been a Tall Blacks regular since making his debut in 1999.

A number of other senior Tall Blacks are expected to confirm their retirement in coming weeks.

Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic last week signalled a changing of the guard when New Zealand was drawn in the same pool as Germany and Cape Verde, of Africa, for the Olympic qualifying tournament in Athens on July 14-20.

“We have been relying on the same players, in some cases, for more than a decade,” Vucinic said. “The reality is we need to rebuild and it was going to be difficult for us whenever that happened … we chose this year.”