Greatest moments in Otago sport - Number 70

The Otago Daily Times counts down the 150 greatest moments in Otago sport.

No 70: Nuggets enter national league (1990)

Tab Baldwin coached the Otago Nuggets in 1990 and later forged a magnificent record with the Tall...
Tab Baldwin coached the Otago Nuggets in 1990 and later forged a magnificent record with the Tall Blacks. Photo from ODT Files.
It is taken for granted now that the Otago Nuggets have a spot - often a little low on the table for their liking - in the National Basketball League.

But once upon a time, Otago had no place at the top table of New Zealand hoops.

The NBL started in 1982 with just eight teams, and throughout the 1980s the Nuggets were part of the second division.

They eventually earned promotion in 1990, but oddly did not have to win the second division to get there. Hutt Valley earned the promotion spot, beating Porirua in the lower tier final, but third-placed Otago was invited in as well, with the league wanting a wider spread of teams.

The Nuggets coach at the time was one Thomas Anthony "Tab" Baldwin, later to win acclaim as our greatest Tall Blacks coach.

With a relatively thin roster featuring Americans Tyrone Black and Ed Card, captain Euan Lockhart, Chris Pollard, Andrew Sheath, Steve Kelly, Todd Marshall, Brent Matehaere, Kelvin Freeland, Darryl June and Garth Freeman, the Nuggets struggled to a 4-18 record and second last in the NBL.

"We didn't have the strongest team in the world. We got some real pastings," Marshall, later to coach the Nuggets for six seasons, recalled.

A rare highlight was Black's double-double, 29 points and 22 rebounds, against North Harbour in front of 2400 fans at the old Dunedin Stadium.

The year ended badly, with the Nuggets racking up massive debts and later being threatened with expulsion from the league.

Baldwin, still adjusting to New Zealand basketball, left and joined Southland. There was a rumour the coach had been a little too generous with the chequebook in recruiting Nuggets players, but Marshall thinks that might be an urban myth.

"Nobody had ever trained as hard as we did under Tab. He was very demanding.

"I think that didn't go down well with some of the senior players. Then results weren't too flash. People weren't very happy and I guess that's why Tab ended up leaving.

"Probably it was a decision made a bit too quickly when you look back on it. But it took Tab a while after that to really find his niche."

Park Beede replaced Baldwin as coach and built a roster around new American Leonard King, countryman Jerome Fitchett (who had played for Otago in 1989) and returning Tall Black captain Glen Denham.

The Nuggets improved to 11-11 in 1991 and shocked Nelson in the first round of the playoffs.

 

 

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