The Taranaki Airs are a New Zealand professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team based in

New Plymouth New Plymouth () is the major city of the Taranaki region on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is named after the English city of Plymouth, in Devon, from where the first English settlers to New Plymouth migrated. The New Pl ...

. The Airs compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at

TSB Stadium TSB Stadium is an indoor stadium located adjacent to Pukekura Park in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand, with vehicle access off Rogan Street. History The stadium opened in 1992 and has hosted countless of sporting, cultural and commercia ...

. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the Steelformers Airs.

Team history

A New Plymouth team played in the inaugural season of the

Conference Basketball League The Conference Basketball League (CBL) was a second-tier men's semi-professional basketball league in New Zealand. During the 1980s and 1990s, the CBL was a second-tier league beneath the National Basketball League (NBL), with promotion and re ...

(CBL) in 1981 and earned runners-up honours. The team went on to finish as runners-up in the CBL Northern Conference in 1983, before winning the CBL championship in 1984. The team was promoted to the National Basketball League (NBL) for the 1985 season. The team was originally known as the Bulls. The team became known as the New Plymouth Bears in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

, the same year they were crowned regular season winners for the first time. The team was rebranded as Taranaki in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and then became the Oilers in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. Following the 1999 season, the franchise withdrew from the NBL. In 2001, a Taranaki team known as the Stormers were the winners of the CBL Central Conference. The following year, the Stormers were once again winners of the CBL Central Conference, earning an 18–0 season record before going on to win the CBL championship with an 85–81 victory over the Kaikoura Whale Riders in the final led by point guard Willie Banks and import forward Link Abrams. In

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, Taranaki returned to the NBL as the Mountainairs. In

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, the team had winless seasons. In

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, they won eight games for the first time since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. The Mountainairs subsequently won just 10 of 54 games between

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. In September 2019, it was revealed that the team had significant debt that could cause them to withdraw from the 2020 NBL season. The following month, naming rights partner Steelformers stepped in to save the team from collapse. In December 2021, the team name was changed from Mountainairs to Airs. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, the Airs finished on top of the regular-season standings with a 12–6 record to be crowned minor premiers for just the second time in franchise history and first since 1992. In September 2023, the team was acquired by Media8 Sports, an Australian sports media company.

Current roster

References

External links

Official team website
*
"Mountain Airs' triple threat"
at stuff.co.nz
"Straight Shot: Time for the Airs to dream big"
at nznbl.basketball {{National Basketball League (New Zealand) National Basketball League (New Zealand) teams Basketball teams in New Zealand Basketball teams established in 1981 1981 establishments in New Zealand Sport in Taranaki