Tall Blacks' race rivals All Whites' feat

OPINION: Here's a question to debate over a hot toddy if the wintry weather does its worst this weekend.

Have the Tall Blacks' feats at the world basketball championships trumped the All Whites' efforts at football's World Cup?

The sporting public must weigh up three wins for the Tall Blacks against three draws for the All Whites.

The All Whites went home after the first round only to later become the only undefeated team at the tournament. The Tall Blacks have qualified for the second stage in Turkey and will make the top-eight if they topple Russia on Tuesday.

Surely, then, it's a buzzer-beating points victory to Nenad Vucinic's mob? Maybe. Maybe not.

Comparisons between codes can be invidious. Basketball is a big global sport, to be sure. But nothing in the team sporting stratosphere usurps a football World Cup.

The World Cup and the basketball world championships are both held every four years, but there's one fundamental difference.

The best footballers in the universe always attend the World Cup if they're not injured or suspended. They turn up even though they're tuckered out after a nine-month club season.

But far too many NBA basketballers give the basketball world championships a big body swerve even though it's the American off-season.

Without detracting in any way from the Tall Blacks' victories over Canada and France, their task may have been much harder if the opposition had had Steve Nash and Tony Parker.

A World Cup crown remains the ultimate in world football, trumping all other honours, including the Champions League.

Yet your average NBA player would rather win a NBA ring, then an Olympic gold medal before a world championship title.

Still, that doesn't mean the world champs isn't a top tournament. A full-strength US team would probably wipe the floor – though nothing's guaranteed in international hoops. The NBA, after all, is now becoming much more a league of nations.

There's another glaring gap between the World Cup and basketball world champs – media coverage. The major television and radio networks and the two major newspaper groups all had multiple reporters in South Africa. The only Kiwi journo we know of at the Turkey tournament paid his own way.

This event has clearly been massively underplayed by our media.

If the Tall Blacks do make the top eight in Turkey it should lead all the sports bulletins. But it's hard to top the romance of the All Whites' 1-1 draw with world champions Italy as an upset of epic proportions.

Yet there are parallels between the Talls and the Alls. Ryan Nelsen's footballers were absolute underdogs in South Africa. Kirk Penney's ball players were dismissed as being past their best and not as talent-deep as the 2002 team which finished fourth in the world.

Both individuals have proven world-class with Nelsen winning selection in an international television network's World Cup All-Star team and Penney lighting up every game to become one of the leading scorers at the Turkey tournament.

So, who cares at this point if it's the All Blacks, Tall Blacks or All Whites for the Halberg team of the year award. Let's just hang on to the hoopla.

Nenad Vucinic was right. The Tall Blacks should be celebrated as one of New Zealand's best teams of the 21st century.

Netball, rugby union and cricket are all small beer compared with hoops. Success is much tougher to achieve at the world basketball champs yet the Kiwis – most of whom play in the Australian or New Zealand leagues – are toppling teams with much bigger budgets, bench depth and taller timber.

Whatever your particular poison or passion, this has been a belter of a sporting winter with the All Blacks' annexing the Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup, the All Whites performing with distinction, the Warriors proving the doubters wrong by making the NRL playoffs and the All Whites and Tall Blacks making New Zealand start to take as much notice of their sports as the rest of the world does.

Can 2011 trump it? It would take a Rugby World Cup win to top 2010.

- © Fairfax NZ News