Basketball New Zealand

Tall Blacks guard Paora Winitana (Photosport)

The changing face of the 2008 Tall Blacks has seen guard Paora Winitana bumped into a leadership role this season.

As the second-oldest at 31 in an increasingly young squad, Winitana was one of the players called on by head coach Nenad Vucinic to take more of a leadership role in the absence of captain Pero Cameron during last week’s trial.

“It’s been great,” said Winitana, one of only two survivors from the Tall Blacks semifinal run at the 2002 FIBA World Championships, along with Cameron.

“The experience I’ve had overt the last several years playing for this team I’ve learned a lot from the guys and we’ve had a few experienced guys.

“Nenad certainly said we needed to be more vocal and lead and I think we did a good job of that.”

Winitana, who made his Tall Blacks debut in 2002, said to defeat Australia in their two-game series on Thursday and Saturday and to do well on their stops in Canada and Slovenia, and ultimately qualify for the Beijing Olympics, depended on the full squad lifting.

“Everyone needs to be a leader on this team. We just can’t look to PC (Pero Cameron) or some of the other veterans. That’s the way this team’s been, we’re not as quick or as tall as other teams. We just need to be smarter and all lead.

“Nenad said last week, playing hard just doesn’t cut it at this level, we need to play smart aswell.”

Winitana is likely to get the start at shooting guard during the Al Ramsay Shield series against the Boomers, with all-star two guard Kirk Penney joining the team to start the Canadian leg of the tour.

After spending much of his time in the Tall Blacks over the last six years battling for minutes behind Penney, recently retired Phill Jones and Aaron Olson, Winitana now sees a chance to lift his game.

“I can see a little bit more opportunity coming my way now . . . but everyone, one to 12, wants to contribute. Whether that’s playing, coming off the bench, grabbing a towel or getting out there and playing defence and grabbing rebounds.”

The Tall Blacks goal of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics at the FIBA Qualifying Tournament in Greece in July, Winitana emphatically states is “very achievable”.

“Who would’ve thought we’d come fourth at the World Champs. We’re going to be underdogs but we like that. We seem to do well when we’re the underdogs.”

And in this week’s build-up, Winitana, a veteran of almost 200 National Basketball League games, has found himself rooming with 19-year-old rookie Corey Webster, a situation he jokingly refers to as “the master and the student”.

“I guess there’s an 11-12 year age difference but I’m glad it worked out this way.”