Jordan Ngatai

Jordan Ngatai
No. 11 – Pyrintö
Position	Small forward
League	Korisliiga
Personal information
Born	7 March 1993 (age 31); Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	New Zealand
Listed height	196 cm (6 ft 5 in)
Listed weight	100 kg (220 lb)
Career information
High school	Mana College; (Porirua, New Zealand)
College	Sierra College (2012–2013); BYU–Hawaii (2013–2014);
NBA draft	2014: undrafted
Playing career	2012–present
Career history
2012	Wellington Saints
2014	Wellington Saints
2014–2020	New Zealand Breakers
2015	Manawatu Jets
2016	Taranaki Mountainairs
2017–2019	Wellington Saints
2020	Otago Nuggets
2020–2022	Cairns Taipans
2022	Wellington Saints
2023–present	Hawke's Bay Hawks
2023–present	Pyrintö
Career highlights and awards
	NBL champion (2015); 4× NZNBL champion (2014, 2017, 2019, 2020); NZNBL All-Star Five (2020);
Men's basketball
Representing New Zealand
Commonwealth Games

Jordan Ngatai (born 7 March 1993) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for Pyrintö of the Finnish Korisliiga. He is also contracted with the Hawke's Bay Hawks of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL). He played six seasons with the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian NBL and is a regular New Zealand Tall Black. In the New Zealand NBL, he is a four-time champion.

Early life and career

Ngatai was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in the suburb of Paddington.^[1]^[2] He was raised in New Zealand, in Porirua and Ngāti Toa,^[3] where he attended Mana College.^[4]

In 2012–13, Ngatai played college basketball for Sierra College in the United States. In 2013–14, he played for BYU–Hawaii.^[5]

Professional career

Ngatai made his debut in the New Zealand NBL in 2012 with the Wellington Saints.^[6] In his second season with Wellington in 2014, he won his first championship. He subsequently joined the New Zealand Breakers as a development player for the 2014–15 NBL season and was a member of the Breakers' championship-winning team. After a season with the Manawatu Jets in 2015, Ngatai re-joined the Breakers as a development player for the 2015–16 NBL season.^[7]

After a season with the Taranaki Mountainairs in 2016, Ngatai was promoted to the full-time playing roster of the Breakers for the 2016–17 NBL season.^[8]

In 2017 and 2019, Ngatai won championships with the Wellington Saints.^[9]^[10]^[11] He was acquired by the Otago Nuggets for the 2020 season,^[12] going on to win his fourth NZNBL championship.^[13]

On 14 August 2020, Ngatai signed a two-year deal with the Cairns Taipans.^[14]

Ngatai returned to the Wellington Saints in 2022^[15] and then joined the Hawke's Bay Hawks in 2023.^[16] On 15 July 2023, he scored a career-high 47 points in a 106–81 win over the Manawatu Jets.^[17]

On 4 December 2023, Ngatai signed with Pyrintö of the Finnish Korisliiga for the rest of the 2023–24 season.^[18]

Ngatai is set to re-join the Hawke's Bay Hawks for the 2024 New Zealand NBL season.^[19]^[20]

National team career

Ngatai made his senior international debut for the Tall Blacks in 2013 at the FIBA Oceania Championships. He represented New Zealand at the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon, where the team ended up in fourth position.^[4]^[21] He was a key member of the national side which claimed the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.^[22] He was included in the New Zealand squad for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.^[23]

In July 2023, Ngatai was named in the Tall Blacks squad for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.^[24] He re-joined the Tall Blacks for qualifiers in February 2024.^[25]