With a Tall Blacks career that dates back to 2016 and 47 games in the black jersey under his belt, 31-year-old Ethan Rusbatch is now looked upon as a veteran on this New Zealand squad. In the first game of these FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, Ethan led all scores with 26 points – also his career-high for the Tall Blacks – and led the Tall Blacks fourth-quarter blitz over Chinese Taipei; hitting all five of his shots, including four back-breaking triples.
We caught up with Ethan prior to the Tall Black’s second game of this FIBA Asia Cup window, to talk about how he feels about being a leader in this squad.
Q: You put on a show against Chinese Taipei a few nights ago; what’s your mentality about having the ‘hot hand’ and how good did your performance feel after coming back form injury?
A: As they say, shooters are gonna shoot! A few of those shots early in the game, they all felt good leaving my hand. And my friend back home always tell me, you shoot the next one like it’s your first one – or like you’ve hit 10 in a row already – so it’s just having a shooter’s mentality . if you’re open you’ve gotta shoot it like it’s going to go in. If you’re going to doubt yourself then there’s no point even shooting it really.
One shot that was a bit of a backbreaker against Chinese Taipei – it was a late clock, I had the ball and I heard a countdown [from the Tall Blacks bench] so I thought “I better get this up” and you don’t need to tell me twice to shoot the ball. And I nailed it.
I think for me personally, this was the first real game since July last year when I tore my Plantar fasciitis – so when I talked to Coach Pero about committing to the team, I was hyped up early and knew I had to be ready. And had to get my foot ready.
After a few team practices it felt good, once we got out there on the court [versus Chinese Taipei] it was a case of shaking the cobwebs off and I was a bit rusty out the gate. But once I got rolling and found my rhythm, there was no looking back after that – the boys were finding me in my spots. I had put in plenty of work to get back here, so it was just getting back into that game rhythm.
Q: That same injury cost you a chance to be in last year’s World Cup squad; how was that experience for you and does it make you even more determined to be part of future Tall Blacks squads?
A: It’s never fun watching when you feel like you should be there with the boys, especially because of an injury that you have no control over. I’d put in all the work leading up to that point, everything had been building up to that moment for me – so it wasn’t fun to have to watch the World Cup on tv.
But at the end of the day, you’ve gotta push that ego aside and support the brothers regardless, it’s still cool watching the teams out there competing against the best in the world. So it’s a case of being ready for the next game and the next tournament; if I’m lucky enough to be in the mix for the Olympic Qualifiers and future Asia Cup qualifiers, I know I’ve gotta put my best foot forward and be ready for it.
This is international basketball, where you get to play against some of the best players in the world. The most notable thing is the culture we have within the Tall Blacks group, it’s been passed down to us from the OGs from way back and now we’re doing our best carry pass that on and teach the new guys in the group.
That culture side of it is one of the biggest things for this squad, we all love coming into this group. We’ve got players who have been around the world doing basketball as their job, so it’s always fun to get us all back together – nothing better than representing your country with your brothers.
Q: What does being a veteran on this Tall Blacks squad mean to you, and what kind of advice do you impart to a young guard like Hayden Jones who’s coming into the team at 17 years old?
I was lucky enough that on one of my first Tall Blacks tours ever, I was roomed up with Tom Abercrombie – so in terms of people who wanted to learn from, he’s the model guy for that. So I was pretty lucky to learn off of Tom and other great vets like Mika [Vokona] and Kirk Penney – there’s no shortage of vets that have left their mark in a positive way on me in the Tall Blacks. So it’s easy for me to carry those learnings over to the young guys.
My advice to Hayden is that it’s about becoming confident. You don’t get picked for the Tall Blacks for no reason; the coaches see something in you, so if you selected you’ve got to come in comfortable, do your thing and just learn; be coachable, fit in with everyone else.
That’s part of why you get picked too, you’ve gotta be one of those guys who is going to fit the culture that’s here, so it’s should be an easy transition for everyone. Obviously there’s going to be nerves, once you shake that off and get into the game – get into that groove – everyone on the team has got your back and we always try and make it as smooth as we can for them.
