The NBA basketball player Steven Adams won't be available to play for the Tall Blacks this year.
Next month the Tall Blacks take on Australia in an Olympic qualifying series.
Steven Adams Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Adams has told Basketball New Zealand that he would not be able to join the Tall Blacks until very late in the tour, mainly due to scheduling conflicts over the coming months and his commitment to being ready for the start of the 2015-16 regular season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Adams believes it would not be right to join the team so late in the campaign, so will not be available to take on the Boomers in the Oceania Series.
Adams says while he won't be playing this year, he remains very keen to be part of the team in future competitions.
Australia will have a number of their NBA players available for the Oceania series.
Tall Blacks' Coach Paul Henare says that while it would have been great to have him on board, Adams reasons for not being available are understandable.
Henare says they are of course disappointed not to have Adams as part of the campaign, he's a world class player and would add plenty to their group, just as we believe the Tall Blacks environment will offer plenty to Steve.
Henare says they've enjoyed good open dialogue with him throughout and feel that we have now established a level of communication that has both parties comfortable looking into the future.
Henare says their door is always open and they look forward to continuing to build on the relationship with Steve and OKC to enable him to pull on the black singlet sooner rather than later.
The Tall Blacks are in Europe preparing for the series and scored two wins over Great Britain at the weekend.
