BIO: Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Tait moved to Auckland as a four-year-old and later attended Avondale College where he was a member of the first Avondale team ever to win a New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship in 1999.

Tait was awarded the Most Valuable Player award for the tournament.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Lindsay Tait made his NBL debut with the Victoria Giants at 21 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

After Victoria Titans folded in mid-2002, a group fronted by businessman Peter Fiddes was granted a licence in their place, and with new ownership primarily made up of former North Melbourne personnel, still upset about the Giants/Magic merger in 1998, re-branded the team to the Giants.

The team was put together on a shoestring budget and could not retain head coach Brian Goorjian nor the majority of the team’s higher-profile talent. The club was able to re-sign veteran Darryl McDonald and import Jamahl Mosely to new (reduced) deals but lacked the financial backing to re-sign much of the local talent losing Chris Anstey, Jason Smith and Mark Dickel to more lucrative European contracts and Tony Ronaldson and Brett Wheeler to the Perth Wildcats.

The Giants had been able to re-sign some of the Titans’ younger talent, Nathan Crosswell, Darren Smith and Marcus Wright and committed to giving them increased minutes and becoming a club focused on giving young Aussie talent a pathway to the NBL. This saw the team fill the remaining roster spots with young players who had been playing in the state leagues, giving them their first big break into the national league. Nik Mirich, who had just graduated from George Mason University, was signed, both Lindsey Tait and Miles Pearce were recruited from the semi-professional New Zealand NBL and Rhys Carter (AIS), David Cooper (Dandenong Rangers) and 36-year-old David Biwer (Nunawading) who had all been playing in the SEABL state league rounded out the bench.

The team would be led by former North Melbourne backup guard Mark Wright, who helped the Giants win a championship in 1989. First year coach Wright and the Giants and budget roster had been picked to finish last on the ladder and began the season with a road loss to Perth (95-85). The team would then surprise everyone by beating the West Sydney Razorbacks in their home opener (122–106) before destroying their cross-town rivals Melbourne (130–102).

The team were led by Jamahl Mosely (21.2 points, 9.5 rebounds), captain Darryl McDonald (14.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 2.4 steals), who led the league in steals, and Nathan Crosswell (15.1 points and 2.9 assists), who grabbed the increased playing opportunities by the horns and moved into the starting lineup.

By round nine, the Giants were sitting on a respectable record (4-5) and sat middle of the NBL ladder. The wheels truly fell off from here, however, as the team lost the next seven games in a row, culminating with the release of import forward Dusty Rychart (16.5 points and 8.3 rebounds) was viewed as underperforming. Behind the scenes, the Giants had made a offer to a athletic big man Pero Vasiljevic, who had exited his deal with Canberra due to their financial instability. The front office was enamoured with Adonis Jordan, a key player during Magic v Giants rivalries of old that had recently been released from Townsville as Rychart’s replacement before letting him go. However, Jordan (19.4 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 4.0 assists) failed to change anything in the Giant’s win-loss column, with Victoria finishing the season with four wins in their final ten games. Injuries also took their toll during this period, with Darren Smith (13.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.1 steals) injuring his knee’s medial and cruciate ligaments, forcing him to miss the second half of the season. Jamahl Mosley (finger) and Marcus Wright (leg) would also both miss a month’s worth of games, resulting in the Giants finishing the season in second last place (9-21).

Tait would appear in only one game for the season.

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS
2003/04
In March 2003, Three Waikato businessmen, Michael Redman, Dallas Fisher and Keith Ward, acquired a NBL licence for a team based in New Zealand. The inaugural Breakers roster was built from the core playing group of New Zealand’s national team, which had finished in fourth place at the FIBA World Championships six months prior.

Phill Jones, who had been the ‘Tall Blacks’ leading scorer (18.2 ppg) at the World Champs, Paul Henare, Dillon Boucher, Paora Winitana and Pero Cameron (who was named team captain) formed the Breakers’ local core. The roster was then filled out with up and coming New Zealand talent like Aaron Olsen and Lindsey Tait and some Australian NBL veterans like Ben Melmeth and Brad Williams to add leadership. Lastly, Casey Frank, a long-time import in the New Zealand national league, was signed as the team’s second import.

Jeff Green was implemented as the team’s first coach and, despite the Breakers being picked by many to finish dead last, they pulled out a win in their very first NBL game against Adelaide (111-110).

After initial success, the Breakers went on to lose ten of their next eleven games (proving the pundits right) to languish near the bottom of the NBL ladder for the remainder of the season.

Twelve games into the season (2-10), Green was fired and succeeded by the team’s assistant coach Frank Arsego, who had also headed up the basketball program at the Australian Institute of Sport for the past five years. Arsego would then bring in Mike Chappell (22.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists), who finished top five in the league in both points and three-point shooting while playing in Canberra the season before. Both Casey Frank and Brad Williams would be released to make way for Chappell, who went on to lead the team in scoring and named Breakers club MVP.

Chappell’s presence delivered a mid-season resurgence where a five game winning streak towards the end of the season gave the Breakers a realistic shot of qualifying for the playoffs. Needing to win both of their final games in the final round to claim a playoff berth, the Breakers instead went winless and finished in tenth place (12–21).

Tait averaged 5.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.4 assists alongside teammates Jones (13.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steals) and Ben Melmeth (13.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.2 assists) who were the best among the team’s local talent.

2004/05
The Breakers entered their second NBL season looking to improve on their tenth-place finish in their first year during their debut season. The Breakers moved Frank Arsego, who had replaced Jeff Green mid-season, into a permanent position as the team’s head coach. The next move was locking in the Breakers’ leading scorer and MVP from the previous season, Mike Chappell, and replacing import Casey Frank with Shawn Redhage, who had been dominating the state league (SEABL).

Ben Melmeth would return to his hometown of Newcastle to play for the Hunter Pirates. He was replaced with fellow Aussie big man Ben Pepper, whose former team, the Victoria Giants, had vacated the league due to financial issues.

To begin the season, Paul Henare was made co-captain, alongside last year’s ‘skipper’ Pero Cameron, and despite falling short in their opening game (a re-match of the team’s first ever game against Adelaide, which they lost 94-106) they started the season by splitting the first games six games and sit within the middle of the were pack with a 3-3 record.

Although Redhage (12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists) made a impressive start to the season, a form slump in November, which saw the team lose six of its seven games, led to Redhage’s court time being reduced and eventually his release after 13 games.

While Redhage would go on to sign with Perth and become one of the NBL’s all-time greats, his replacement came in the form of Marcus Timmons (9.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.5 steals). A clear mistake had been made there, however, as shortly after taking the court, it was clear Timmons was no longer the player he was back when he joined the Melbourne Tigers mid-season in 1997 and led them to a championship.

Chappell (18 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists) would lead the team in scoring for a second consecutive season, while Aaron Olson would boost his scoring from 10.8 points per game to 15.5 points per game and win the club’s MVP award at the end of the season.

Tait appeared in 32 games and averaged 6.7 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists, while the Breakers finished in eleventh place (9-23), failing to improve on their debut season.

2005/06
With the Breakers still searching for their first winning season, they chose not to re-sign Mike Chappell, the Breakers’ leading scorer from the past two seasons and appointed a new head coach Andrej Lemanis. Lemanis had played in the NBL during the 1980s and 1990s and spent the previous five seasons as a assistant coach with the Townsville Crocodiles.

Lemanis inherited a Breakers squad who had seen both its national team players, Pero Cameron (Gold Coast) and Dillon Boucher (Perth), leave for better opportunities on other NBL team’s.

Lemanis looked to build around its young turning core group, which included Aaron Olsen, Ben Pepper, Lindsay Tait and Paul Henare, who was named team captain with the departure of co-captain Pero Cameron.

Rugged defender Ben Thompson and New Zealand born Adrian Majstrovich (both via Perth) were added to the roster, as was the import duo of Rich Melzer and Brant Bailey.

The Breakers started the season poorly (1-5) and quickly made the decision to replace Bailey (18.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists) with Brian Green (18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals).

Melzer (18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) would lead New Zealand in scoring while the Breakers continued to see strong development from young gun Aaron Olson (17.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists) and Ben Pepper (14.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks) was a force inside the paint. Tait averaged 9.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists, appearing in 32 of the Breakers’ games.

Lemanis’ first season in charge was not particularly memorable. During the season, the Breakers endured a team-worst eleven straight losses, but after making the personnel changes, the team split their final twelve games of the season and finished the regular season tenth out of eleven team’s (9-23). Tait would deliver his best season so far, averaging 9.9 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists as the team’s primary point guard off the bench.

WOLLONGONG HAWKS
2007/08
In 2007/08 Tait averaged 12.3 points and 3.3 rebounds, and 4.5 assists, and helped guide the Hawks to a 9-21 record.

2008/09
Having lost star forward Glen Saville to rival club Sydney in 2007, he returned the following season as a result of the Kings financial collapse and withdrawal from the league. Other key player movements saw Cam Rigby, Aaron Trahair and Ben Castle exit the club with Anthony Petrie, Rhys Martin and Dusty Rychart sigining as their replacements.

Saville (15.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks) was a monster in his first season back in Wollongong, finishing fourth in the NBL in defensive rebounds, tenth in total rebounds, and fifth in steals. New addition Dusty Rychart (15.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists) would lead the team in scoring but the roster shuffle saw Mat Campbell (9.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists), Lindsay Tait (8.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists) and Larry Davidson (6.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks) all saw their scoring production drop by 3-4 points each resulting in the Hawks struggling to compete offensively against the top team’s.

Tait averaged 8.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while the Hawks limped home to a seventh place finish (11-19).

CAIRNS TAIPANS
2010/11
After finishing one loss away from the wooden spoon in 2010, the Taipans underwent a major rehaul of their roster. While the core group of Ian Crosswhite, Dusty Rychart, Aaron Grabau and captain Phill Jones remained, Cairns replaced the rest of last year’s roster. Alex Loughton, the team’s major signing, returned to Australia after a season spent in Spain. Daniel Dillon, who had spent the past season in the state league, signed on as the Snake’s backup point guard, and imports Ayinde Ubaka and Ron Dorsey replaced Julien Mills and Rich Melzer.

After a modest start to the season, starting with one win from the first three games of the season, the Taipans became the surprise packed of the year. The team won five in a row and jumped from 7th place in round three to 2nd place by round nine.

A well-balanced attack from Cairns saw Ubaka (13.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists), Dorsey (13.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists), Loughton (11.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists) and Crosswhite (11.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists) all score in double figures.

The Taipans finished the season on a four-game winning streak and in third place (16–12).

The semi finals saw them lose to Townsville in the opening game of the series before winning games two and three to advance through to the Grand Final series for the first time in franchise history.

Facing off against New Zealand, Cairns suffered a thrashing in the series opener (85–67) in Auckland before returning to Cairns for Game 2. There, the Taipans looked set for a three-point win in regulation before a three-pointer from Breakers guard CJ Bruton in the dying seconds sent the match into overtime. However, not to be outdone, five minutes later, Dorsey returned the favour, wiping out the Breakers’ three-point lead with a miraculous long-range buzzer beater which saw the first game in NBL history head into double overtime. With momentum now on their side, the Taipans took home a nail-biting double-overtime win (85–81) which sent the series back to New Zealand for a third game.

The Taipans lacked the same spark in game three, with import pair Ubaka and Dorsey shooting 4-of-26 between them and the Breakers winning comfortably by 18 points (71–53).

Tait appeared in 24 games, averaging 2.8 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in what would be his last NBL season.

Lindsay Tait played seven seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Victoria Giants, Wollongong Hawks, New Zealand Breakers and Cairns Taipans. He averaged 7.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 147 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.