Tai Jack Webster (born 29 May 1995) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the Perth Wildcats of the National Basketball League (NBL). Prior to playing college basketball in the United States, Webster won a New Zealand NBL championship with the Auckland Pirates in 2012 and an Australian NBL championship with the Breakers in 2013 as a development player. He played four college seasons for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, earning second-team All- Big Ten as a senior in 2017. He played professionally in Germany and Turkey between 2017 and 2020.

Early career

Born in Auckland, Webster attended Westlake Boys High School where he led them to the National Secondary Schools Basketball Championships in October 2012, scoring 24 points en route to garnering tournament MVP honours. While attending Westlake, he played basketball for the North Harbour juniors; from 2010 to 2012, he played for the North Harbour U17s, U19s and U21s. In

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, Webster played for the Auckland Pirates, where in two games, he recorded a total of two points and two assists.Player statistics for Tai Webster
/ref> The Pirates went on to win the 2012 championship with an 89–83 win over the Wellington Saints in the grand final. In August 2012, Webster joined the New Zealand Breakers as a non-contracted development player for the

2012–13 NBL season The 2012–13 NBL season was the 35th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 5 October 2012 and 24 March 2013, followed by a post-season which invo ...

. In December 2012, he signed a

National Letter of Intent National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

to play college basketball at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In April 2013, Webster signed with the Waikato Pistons for the

2013 New Zealand NBL season The 2013 NBL season was the 32nd season of the National Basketball League. The 2013 season saw the withdrawal of the Auckland Pirates and Harbour Heat, but saw the return of the Waikato Pistons after a one-year hiatus as well as the Super City ...

. In 15 games for Waikato, he averaged 18.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He had never heard of Nebraska when he was recruited, but signed with the team anyway.

College career

Freshman year

As a freshman for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2013–14, Webster was an immediate contributor, averaging 3.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 32 games (30 starts) while helping the Huskers reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. He led Nebraska with 63 assists and was also among the team leaders in steals. Webster reached double figures four times, including a season-high 14 points against Georgia, and paced the squad in assists eight times. His season-best was five assists on three occasions.

Sophomore year

As a sophomore in 2014–15, Webster emerged as one of for the Huskers , backing-up several starting guards

Terran Petteway Terran Petteway (born October 8, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for Hapoel Eilat of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He played college basketball for Texas Tech University and the University of Nebraska. Petteway le ...

and Shavon Shields. He fell out of the rotation early in Big Ten play but found a role as the Huskers' energy guy off the bench and his improved defense showed in other facets of his game. In 30 games (four starts), he averaged 3.9 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.4 minutes per game. Webster called the season "hugely disappointing" since his work in practice did not translate to higher production than as a freshman. !

Junior year

As a junior in 2015–16, Webster joined the Nebraska starting lineup. He averaged 10.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 27.7 minutes per game.

Senior year

As a senior in 2016–17, Webster averaged 17.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 34.7 minutes per game. Leading up to the NBA draft, many thought Webster could be a "second-round sleeper."

College statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , style="text-align:left;", Nebraska , 32 , , 30 , , 22.8 , , .304 , , .171 , , .619 , , 2.1 , , 2.0 , , 0.8 , , 0.1 , , 3.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , style="text-align:left;", Nebraska , 30 , , 4 , , 18.4 , , .358 , , .231 , , .737 , , 1.9 , , 1.2 , , 0.7 , , 0.1 , , 3.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;", Nebraska , 34 , , 18 , , 27.7 , , .474 , , .350 , , .740 , , 4.1 , , 1.9 , , 1.4 , , 0.4 , , 10.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Nebraska , 31 , , 31 , , 34.7 , , .421 , , .294 , , .744 , , 5.1 , , 4.0 , , 1.4 , , 0.1 , , 17.0 , - , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 127 , , 83 , , 25.9 , , .414 , , .279 , , .715 , , 3.3 , , 2.3 , , 1.0 , , 0.2 , , 8.8 , -

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2017 NBA draft The 2017 NBA draft was held on June 22, 2017, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting U.S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. ...

, Webster played for the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

during the

2017 NBA Summer League The 2017 NBA Summer League consisted of three pro basketball leagues organized by the National Basketball Association (NBA): the Orlando Pro Summer League, Utah Jazz Summer League, and Las Vegas Summer League. Eight teams participated in the wee ...

in Las Vegas. He later signed with the

Skyliners Frankfurt The Skyliners Frankfurt, currently known as Fraport Skyliners for sponsorship reasons, are a professional basketball club based in Frankfurt, Germany. Their home arena is Ballsporthalle. The club has played in the Basketball Bundesliga sinc ...

in Germany for the 2017–18 season. He posted 14.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game in his rookie season. On 7 August 2018, Webster signed with the Turkish team Galatasaray. He re-signed with Galatasaray on 7 August 2019. On 15 July 2020, Webster signed a one-year contract with the New Zealand Breakers, returning to the team for a second stint. On 9 April 2021, he was ruled out for four weeks with an Achilles injury. Webster averaged 17.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game during the 2020–21 season. On 11 July 2021, Webster re-signed with the Breakers on a two-year deal. However, on 20 September 2021, he was released by the Breakers reportedly due to his refusal to get the

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

. On 2 November 2021, Webster signed with Lithuanian team Žalgiris Kaunas for the rest of the 2021–22 season. On 31 July 2022, Webster signed with Petkim Spor of the Turkish Basketball Super League. He was released on 30 December 2022. On 2 January 2023, Webster signed with the Perth Wildcats in Australia for the rest of the

2022–23 NBL season The 2022–23 NBL season was the 45th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2022–23 season. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by ESPN in the second se ...

, with a mutual option for the 2023–24 season.

National team career

In 2012, Webster represented New Zealand at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, where he averaged 13.5 points per game. He went on to represent New Zealand at the

2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. Hosted by Spain, it was the last tournament to be held on the then-current four-year cycle ...

and the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Career statistics

EuroLeague

, - , align="left" , 2021–22 , align="left" , Žalgiris , 21 , , 7 , , 12.5 , , .326 , , .222 , , .739 , , .9 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .1 , , 4.0 , , 2.0 , - class="sortbottom" , align="center" colspan="2", Career , 21 , , 7 , , 12.5 , , .326 , , .222 , , .739 , , .9 , , 1.6 , , .3 , , .1 , , 4.0 , , 2.0

Personal

Webster is the son of Tony and Cherry Webster. Tony was a standout athlete in his own right, earning first team All-WAC honors at Hawaii in 1983 and ranking fourth on Hawaii’s career steals list before playing professionally in New Zealand. His older brother,

Corey Corey is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a masculine version of name Cora, which has Greek origins and is the maiden name of the goddess Persephone. The name also can have origins from the Gaelic word ''coire'', which means "in a cau ...

, also plays professional basketball and the pair have been teammates.

References

External links

Tai Webster
at euroleague.net (archive)
Tai Webster
at euroleaguebasketball.net
Tai Webster
at

realgm.com RealGM.com is a sports website created in 2000. The site was originally a basketball site, but has since expanded its scope to provide information about American football, baseball, ice hockey and soccer. According to Alexa, the site ranked i ...

Tai Webster
at huskers.com
Tai Webster
at washingtonpost.com *
"Breakers eye Tai Webster"
at stuff.co.nz {{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Tai 1995 births Living people 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup players 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup players Auckland Pirates players Basketball players from Auckland BC Žalgiris players Galatasaray S.K. (men's basketball) players Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball players New Zealand Breakers players New Zealand expatriate basketball people in the United States New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Lithuania New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Turkey New Zealand men's basketball players Perth Wildcats players Petkim Spor players Point guards Shooting guards Skyliners Frankfurt players Waikato Pistons players