BIO: Tai Wynyard was born and raised in Auckland (NZ). Wynyard attended Rangitoto College and helped the school’s basketball team win the Auckland premier championship in 2014.

That year, he travelled to the United States to play in the Jordan Brand Classic.

He began his career that same year, playing in his home country for the New Zealand Breakers and the Super City Rangers of the New Zealand NBL.

Wynyard then spent two years playing basketball in the United States for Kentucky. Wynyard returned to the Australian and New Zealand NBL in 2020.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Tai Wynyard made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 16 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

After a dismal season the year prior, where the team missed out on the NBL playoffs despite having won the previous three seasons in a row, the Breakers regrouped by replacing imports Kerron Johnson and Gary Wilkinson with big man Ekene Ibekwe and fan favourite Cedric Jackson, who had led the team to back-to-back titles previously (2012, 2013).

This season saw the exits of CJ Bruton (retired) and Daryl Corletto (to Melbourne) and replaced with Rhys Carter (via Adelaide) and Tai Wesley, who qualified as a local player due to being born in Guam under the league’s Asian player rule.

As a development player, Wynyard would appear in only three games, failing to score, as the Breakers battled all season long for top spot alongside Perth and Cairns, eventually finishing in second place (19–9). New Zealand would go on to defeat Cairns in the Grand Final, clinching the Breakers fourth title in five seasons.

2015/16
The Breakers retained every player from their 2015 championship-winning roster minus Rhys Carter (to Sydney) and Ekene Ibekwe (to Europe). To replace the pair, the club picked up Australian point guard Shane McDonald and rookie American big man Charles Jackson. New Zealand’s pre-season was met with a number of challenges which included Alex Pledger being absent due to recovering from off-season foot surgery, Thomas Abercrombie being forced to the sidelines with a nagging hamstring strain and the exit of Corey Webster, who headed to the US to trial with the New Orleans Pelicans. In a move to replace them, the Breakers elevated development players Shea Ili and Tai Wynyard, while also signing Everard Bartlett as a replacement for Webster. Delany would sign on as a development player and appear in four games during the season.

New Zealand finished fourth (16–12) to claim the final playoff berth, where they swept ladder leaders Melbourne in the semifinals (2–0) and moved on to their fifth NBL Grand Final appearance in six years.

Again we would see a New Zealand v Perth Grand Final, where this time, the Wildcats would rely on the presence inside of Nathan Jawai and the tough defence of Casey Prather to take home victory in game one (82–76).

Game two was played in Auckland where the Breakers evened the series (1-1) thanks to a near triple-double from Cedric Jackson (13 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists) that propelled them to the win (72–68).

With the deciding game in Perth, 13,090 of the ‘Red Army’ were in attendance and the Wildcats’ made sure to avenge their grand final loss from last year. Casey Prather (19 points) and Jermaine Beal (14 points) did most of the damage on the scoreboard for the Wildcats, but it was Damian Martin’s inspirational display in defence that shone the brightest. Martin would be named Grand Final MVP after keeping star Breakers guard Cedric Jackson scoreless on five attempts and forcing him to foul out early in the last term. The Wildcats would go on to claim their seventh NBL championship in a blow-out victory (75–52).

The loss marked the first time New Zealand had lost to the Wildcat’s in playoff history and the team’s first ever grand final series loss.

During his second year as a development player, Wynyard continued to see limited playing opportunities with the Breakers, appearing in only five games, scoring a total of five points.

CAIRNS TAIPANS
2019/20
After three seasons out of the league, Wynyard received another opportunity to play in the NBL in Cairns, but failed to see regular court time once again. The Taipans finished in third place finish with a 16-12 record.

Tai Wynyard played three seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Cairns Taipans..

Dan Boyce (815 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.