Yanni Wetzell ready to grab centre stage on Tall Blacks’ World Cup mission

Yanni Wetzell is living the hoops dream right now, plying his trade in one of Europe’s more cosmopolitan cities, banging bodies in the second best league on the planet and, finally, pulling on the renowned black singlet of his country.

The latter has taken longer than it ought to have for, arguably, New Zealand’s most successful basketball export not named Steven Adams. The 2.08-metre Aucklander, and former Breaker, is 27, and has been playing high-level hoops for nearly a decade – five years in the US collegiate system, a couple of campaigns in the Australian NBL and now a season and a-bit in Europe where he is ensconced at one of the premier clubs on the continent.

But until recently he had never appeared for the Tall Blacks, as circumstances and commitments denied him opportunities. That’s all changed now, as he embarks on the World Cup campaign with Pero Cameron’s Tall Blacks – next stop Hamburg, Germany, for matchups against a red-hot Canada team (August 13) and either China or the hosts (Aug 14) – that will culminate with the global event in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan from August 25 to September 10.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Wetzell tells Stuff during the cup buildup. “The camaraderie of playing with Kiwis, guys you’ve grown up with, there’s just a different element to it than pro clubs where you’ve got guys from all over the world you’re meeting for the first time and you don’t necessarily have the same culture or humour. It’s nice coming here and just being yourself and everyone gets the same jokes.”

Still, it’s a deadly serious mission this team is on, and one Wetzell is adamant can be successful, despite the New Zealanders landing in the same World Cup pool as tournament favourites the USA, a strong Greece team that may or may not include Giannis Antetokounmpo (recovering from off-season knee surgery) and outsiders Jordan in Manila. To stay in the reckoning they have to finish top two.

Given the USA’s strength (their NBA megastars are marked absent, but it’s still a very talented lineup), the Tall Blacks will likely have to topple the Greeks to progress to the top-16 rounds. Wetzell, who has a fair idea of what’s coming, is adamant it’s no mission impossible.

“Greece are loaded,” says the Westlake Boys alum, who plies his trade for Alba Berlin in Germany and the EuroLeague. “I see Thomas Walkup got naturalised, they’ve got [Kostas] Papanikolaou, these EuroLeague veterans, serious money guys. They have a massive talent pool regardless, and they’re going to be good. Hopefully we can step up.

“I think we can challenge anyone. Even the USA. Why not? We’re not playing these guys on paper. Hopefully we can build our camaraderie over the next month and that will take us a lot further than just the sum of our pieces.”

Wetzell is likely Cameron’s starting centre for the cup, and has eased into his international career through the first two outings against Japan – 2 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes in the 79-72 first-up defeat and 4 points and 4 boards in 16 minutes in the bounceback 94-75 victory. More significant contributions can be expected.

He is coming off a solid first year with Alba in which he played 64 games in total (averaging 8.1 points, 3.1 rebounds in 15.4 minutes while shooting 57% from the floor) across German domestic competition and the EuroLeague (comfortably the best hoops league in the world outside the NBA). With still two more years to run on his deal, and his Berlin club firing in the BBL – they went 31-3 and were beaten semifinalists – it’s a settled situation the Kiwi big man feels comfortable in.

“It was special – definitely a step up from what I had been used to,” he says. “It took a few months to get my feet under me with the level of play and systems over there. It was an amazing experience. We played in some awesome atmospheres – the east Europeans, the Serbs, the Turks, the Greeks … they really know how to put on a game. They’re fanatics.”

And after a year in Berlin, the Kiwi feels as settled as he could be. “I’ve got a house and a car, and am slowly getting acquainted with the city. There’s lots to do, heaps of Kiwis there – it’s a really diverse city and a melting pot of different cultures. It’s a cool city, man.”

Wetzell loved the challenge of EuroLleague, even if Alba finished well down the pack with an 11-23 record. ”It’s clever basketball, and often quite simple too. A lot of pick and rolls and spacing the floor, but everything is a step up in terms of the crispness of it all. There are people with seriously high-level IQs out there … [Miloš] Teodosić, [Nick] Calathes, Scottie Kwilecki, wizards with the ball, and there’s the extra length to deal with. Their wings are 6’8, 6’9.”

Timing wasn’t auspicious for Wetzell’s pro career down under. After playing the first Covid season (‘20-21) with South East Melbourne, he lined up for the Breakers in the second, and like everyone found the going tough in the ‘21-22 slog on the road – eventually using his European out to cut loose to join Baskonia in Spain for the tail end of their season.

That morphed into Berlin, and he’s settled now, thriving on the level of play and the experience. But he doesn’t rule out a return down under in the future.

“Maybe. It kinda depends how the body holds up the next few years,” he says. “We’ll see how this next season goes. With basketball everything tends to be year-to-year. That’s the nature of the industry. I definitely miss playing in this part of the world though, so we’ll see.”

Right now he has more than enough on his plate. He’s loving the chance to finally play for his country, for a coach he’s always admired, and with friends he’s forged in the hoops furnace. The USA and Greece are just the icing on the cake.

Tall Blacks World Cup buildup: Results: Lost to Japan 79-72; beat Japan 94-75. Fiba SuperCup, Hamburg, Germany: Aug 12 v Canada; Aug 13 v Germany or China. Solidarity Cup, Shenzhen, China: Aug 18 v China; Aug 21 v Italy.