THEN . . .
Tab Baldwin arrived in Dunedin in 1988 to coach Otago in the second-tier Conference Basketball League.
Coming from an assistant coaching role at college in the US, he was recommended to the Otago Basketball Association by import Jesse Phillips.
In his first head coaching job, Baldwin’s first two seasons were highly successful, winning promotion to the top tier of NBL basketball.
However, a tough first season at that top level saw the Nuggets win just four from 22 games and the OBA decided to look for a new coach.
Baldwin described the period as his coaching ‘‘adolescence’’ and said it was the catalyst for things to come.
"You don’t know it at the time but what I really needed to do was grow up as a coach and learn.
"Those years in Dunedin, I learned so much.
"I didn’t even know I was learning, really, because I was just a competitive young guy who really didn’t know a tremendous amount about how to be a head coach of a basketball team."
He had enjoyed his time in Dunedin, although it had been "really devastating" when the organisation did not stick with him.
"When they didn’t stick with me I was a pretty angry guy.
"But in some ways that fuelled my inner fire that I was going to prove myself and it’s a big reason that I didn’t leave New Zealand at the time.
"But I was very determined to stay, very determined to prove I could do something and probably that was good for me.
"It was very difficult to handle because I loved New Zealand, I loved Dunedin.
"I enjoyed the people, it had been such a dramatic change from my life in America and I really fully embraced it and felt like I belonged in New Zealand.
"So it was so very bittersweet as I remember it.
"I enjoyed so much of my experience in Dunedin and I was so devastated after the organisation fired me in 1990."
However, the good times were not lost on him all these years later.
"Even though it was bittersweet, in the end I think it was one of the most important moments that allowed me to go on to future success in my coaching career.
"So I’m indebted to the people of Dunedin, the people of Otago, and believe me, I have phenomenal memories of the three years I spent there.
"I loved that time, I loved that province and there’s so many people I’d love to some day come back and shake their hand and say thank you.
"But I might have to do it in a blanket way and say thank you to the good people of the South and I loved my time there.
"Who knows? I’ll never say I won’t ever come back anywhere that I’ve been."
Tab Baldwin alongside wife Efi.
NOW . . .
Now a 59-year-old, Baldwin has coached in 10 different countries.
For the past three years he has lived on the outskirts of Manila in the Philippines, where he coaches the Ateneo university team.
He has also been involved with the country’s national team, head coaching it for two years, before becoming a team consultant this year.
The country is fanatical about basketball, meaning the stakes were high, although Baldwin’s experience was key in coping with that.
"The games have big crowds, the owners have big expectations, the fans are involved in everything, so there’s a lot of social media and a lot of discussion constantly.
"Everything is analysed and overanalysed and often by people that don’t know the game really well.
"There’s always going to be pros and cons when you have something as popular as the game is over here.
"You just take the bad with the good, because if you didn’t have that you wouldn’t have the good.
"So I guess from a coaching standpoint, if I was a young coach probably the pressure would be something I’d struggle to deal with.
"But I’ve been in this game 25 years now, so I tend to feel I’ve already done a lot, proven a lot, so I really enjoy my coaching now and I don’t feel pressure."
He said the game had little more room to grow in the country, although it was still maturing.
With such success within the country, there was reluctance from some parties to change things in order to have more success internationally.
For Baldwin, the stop was just the latest in a globe-trotting career.
Since leaving Otago, he has also coached the Malaysia, New Zealand, Jordan and Lebanon national teams.
He has also coached in Turkey, China, Greece and Romania.
During that time he also coached the Auckland Stars to five NBL titles in the 1990s, as well as returning to coach the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in 2013.
Most notably though, he coached the Tall Blacks between 2001 and 2006, guiding them to a fourth-placed finish at the 2002 world championships.
Alongside basketball, Baldwin’s big focus was his family.
He lives with wife Efi, who runs an increasingly successful travel business called Definitely Greece, which runs tours around Greece.
She had four children, two of whom — Giorgios (19) and Adriana (17) — live with the couple in the Philippines.
Meanwhile Ronia (22) and Giota (21) are at university in New Zealand. He also has two boys, Travis (14) and Wyatt (12), from a previous relationship.
He was unsure what the future held, although he could see himself holding a fishing rod.
For now, though, he was happy with what he was doing and enjoying his time in the Philippines.
