In a Basketball Game, coaches play very important roles such as planning the game, training the players, illustrating to the players the proper attitudes and manners to have while a game is going on.
New Zealander coaches have that very high spirit and eagerness which can influence their players to perform well. Their experiences and knowledge and skills also are the key factors to train their players. All in all, coaches will act as the captain of the ship and the team captain will be the manager.
Winning a game is one of the greatest triumph that a New Zealander coach could hope for his team, but what is more important for them is that they could extend to their players the key skills and attitude that a layer should have. This is what they call as learning, learning to be a professional and not only focusing in the winning goal, thus, also in the better aspect of playing the sport basketball.
Thomas Anthony Baldwin aka “TAB”
TAB is a professional New Zealander Basketball Coach. He was born on the 16th of May, 1958 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA. He is the current head coach for the Lebanon National Basketball Team.
His Coaching career started in the year 1988 as he was asked to coach for the Otago Nugget which a competing team in the New Zealand Basketball League. He was then promoted after some time as his great coaching skills were noticed. He then head coached the Auckland Stars in the year 1994.
For the total of 8 seasons being the Head coach of Auckland, he have won 5 NBL titles for the years 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999 and lastly in the year 2000. He was also regarded as the NBL Coach of the Year three times in the years 1995, 1997 and 1999.
He emerged as the most successful coach in the New Zealand Basketball History. In the year 2001, he was the head coach of the 2001 FIBA Oceania Championship entry of New Zealand Men’s Tall Blacks where they won and subsequently got qualified for the 2002 FIBA World Championship where they have also reached the Semi-Finals.
This was the most remarkable performance of an Oceania Team in the History for FIBA world cup.
In addition, Baldwin has also coached the PAOK Thessaloniki BC in Greece, Banvitspor team in Turkey and U Mobitelco Club in Romania.
Because of his great achievements as a Basketball coach, he was able to receive the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2003 New Year Honors. As the new coach for the Lebanon National Basketball Team, the team was able to win the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in 2010. This was another remarkable victory for his coaching career.
Over all, his coaching career can be claimed as the best among all New Zealand Coaches. As he led the New Zealand Basketball team from 2001 to 2006, it could be said that his performance was really exceptional.