FIBA And The 'Tall Blacks'

What the fuck?! That was my gut reaction when I first heard the nickname for the New Zealand National team, The Tall Blacks. Maybe I grew up learning to place too much significance on political correctness but this seems very irresponsible by the New Zealand team. Any casual observer could find this immediately antagonistic. The most ironic part is the team is comprised by a bunch of white boys. It may be that FIBA, the governing body of the World Championships, likes to brew anti-cultural or anti-race sentiment in order to propagate the event. FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association seems to reap the fruits of cross cultural hatred during the world cup and I feel that FIBA is following suit. Although the homogeneity of FIFA Soccer teams is greater than that of FIBA's basketball clubs, there is still that distinct cultural divide across the National teams. This is why the NBA will always be superior to FIBA. The Phoenix Suns carry a heavily multicultural and racial player base which is a non issue. Winning in the NBA is to win for the good of the team while in FIFA and FIBA competitions it seems that winning is also for the good of your culture. As if winning a basketball game denotes a superior nation.

Sean Marks, our own 'Tall Black'

It is vague as why the New Zealand team carries such a classless name but I have found a poor mans answer,

The name was chosen as it reminds people of New Zealand's Rugby Union team, the All Blacks... (this tells me nothing so I went here and found that) ...It describes their playing strip of black shirts, shorts and socks. It has been suggested the name dates from the first tour of Britain by a New Zealand national rugby team (known as The Originals) in 1905/1906. According to Billy Wallace, one of the members of the Originals, the name derived from a London newspaper's description of the New Zealand team playing as if they were all backs! However it is much more likely that the name came from the black strip worn by the team... Rugby union is New Zealand's premier sport, and selection for the All Blacks is considered the highest honour that a Kiwi rugby union player can achieve.

Maybe I'm being a little overbearing but it seems to me that if you have a basketball team you shouldn't name it the Tall Blacks. I know David Stern Wouldn't.