Keith Mair began playing basketball as a 16-year-old in his hometown of Taumaranui. He incurred an injury whist studying accounting at Victoria University and it was then that his love affair with coaching began.
He has been involved in pretty much every level of coaching, including club teams, Secondary School teams, representative teams, NBL teams and of course New Zealand National teams.
At NBL level he coached Canterbury Rams from 1989-1995 winning NBL titles in 1989, 1990 and 1992.
He also coached the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in 1996 and ‘97.
Mair’s international coaching career spanned 35 years.
He was the Assistant Coach of the 1980 Tall Ferns Team and the NZ Junior Men’s team Coach from 1980-1983. He was also assistant coach from 1984-1987 for the NZ Senior Men’s team.
In 1996 and 1997 he was the Under 23 Men’s head coach.
He became the Tall Blacks head coach in1988 and held the position until 2000.
During this time, his achievements were many, including achieving the first ever test series win over England in 1990 followed by series wins over Japan in 1990 and 1994, South Korea in 1996.
He also oversaw the first win over an NCAA Division 1 College team in the USA in 1994.
Under his direction the Tall Blacks won the William Jones Cup Tournament in Taiwan in 2000 and in the same year in Sydney were the first NZ Men’s team to make an appearance at an Olympic games.
He also had a brief stint as Head Coach of the Welsh National Team in 2015, a position he held on a voluntary basis.
In addition, his renowned administrative skills saw him hold a position on the BBNZ board for 18 years, including six years as vice president. He was also Head of Sport Development for the Hillary Commission from 1988 to 2002 and then Chief Executive of Basketball England from 2003-2013.
Mair was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2015.
Te Papa played host to the annual Basketball New Zealand Awards this evening, recognising excellence and achievement in…
Posted by Basketball New Zealand on Saturday, 8 May 2021
