Ty Wynyard
Age: 24
Born: February 5, 1998 at Auckland
Height: 2.08m
Event: Basketball 3x3
Coach: Piet van Hasselt
Wynyard is the son of former world woodchopping champions Jason and Karmyn Wynyard, with his mother also attending University of Alaska Anchorage on a basketball scholarship.
Following in the slipstream of Steven Adams, he was widely expected to become New Zealand's next NBA star, as he graduated from junior and secondary schools basketball into NZ Breakers.
Wynyard became the youngest-ever Tall Black, when he debuted against South Korea at the age of 16, and led the Junior Tall Blacks with 14.3 points and 9.3 rebounds at the 2017 FIBA U19 World Cup.
Significantly for his Birmingham campaign, he was named MVP, when New Zealand won the 2015 U18 3x3 World Cup in Hungary.
But his career stalled, when he accepted a scholarship to attend University of Kentucky - one of the premier US basketball colleges - and saw very little court-time, eventually transferring to Santa Clara, but returning to New Zealand before he could take the court for the Broncos.
Wynyard almost gave up the sport, but has continued to play within the NZ NBL for Taranaki Mountain Airs, shedding 15kg for the current season, under the tutelage of Tall Blacks legend Pero Cameron.
