The New Zealand Haka Is A Very Underrated Pregame Ritual

New Zealand has a long history with the haka as a pregame ritual, it’s most commonly used by their national rugby team but other New Zealand national teams have started to incorporate it in international play and I for one could not be more thrilled. That thing fucking rules. The All Blacks first performed a ritual like this in 1906 and anyone who considers this unsportsmanlike (real criticism they’ve gotten), is a giant dickhead. Well the New Zealand basketball team busted this bad boy out before their game against Greece today

and honestly not having Steven Adams here for this is a huge oversight. Even if he wasn’t going to play, I feel like you need him to partake in this to add to the intimidation factor. When you’re going up against Giannis you have to be willing to try anything to get into his head, so I don’t hate this strategy. You’d be intimidated after watching that performance, so was it even effective? Well…

almost! Sadly, at 1-2 in group play New Zealand will not be moving on to the second round of this tournament, had they won this game it would have punched their ticket so that kinda stinks. Doesn’t mean the Haka doesn’t rule though. So if you’re like me and love watching this ritual, let’s relive some of the best ones we’ve seen

I’m not sure what the rules are in terms of who is allowed to do this and who isn’t, all I know is this needs to find it’s way to the NBA/NFL. Who gives a shit about the shootarounds to warm up before a game, we need more Hakas and we need them immediately.