The Auckland Tuatara have confirmed their coaching line-up for the 2025 season with head coach Cam Gliddon appointing his two new assistants.
Sione Maama and Justin Bailey will serve as assistant coaches of the three-time Sal’s NBL runners-up after accepting positions in Gliddon’s crew.
Maama is already known to the Tuatara group. He was part of the Tuatara set-up in 2024, working alongside his brother Josiah, who has been an assistant to Aaron Young in each of the Tuatara’s three seasons in the League.
Maama is currently the director of basketball at Sacred Heart College as well as one of five young coaches helping out with the NZ Breakers for the season. He has been coaching in the high school scene for a long time and has a few years of experience in the NZNBL as an assistant coach with the Franklin Bulls in 2022.
Alongside brother Josiah the pair have worked with a lot of players around the league through their off-season basketball program GI Rise.
Maama is engaged to fiancée Emma who he will marry this December. They are blessed to have two beautiful twin girls Moana-Lee and Alisi-Luisa, who were born in April this year, and has great support from his mother-in-law and father-in-law, as well as his siblings and inspirational mother.
Bailey is a former professional player with 13 years of experience overseas, having competed in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Russia. In 2009, he helped lead the Waikato Pistons to an NBL championship victory and was named Finals MVP. Since then, Justin has stayed deeply connected to basketball in New Zealand, serving in various coaching roles including team manager and academy coach for the New Zealand Breakers, U23 coach for Harbour Basketball, assistant coach for the Junior Tall Blacks, and most recently as an assistant coach for the Otago Nuggets in 2020-2022 and again in 2024. He also teaches mathematics and coaches basketball at Long Bay College.
He is happily married to Liz, and they have a three-year-old son named Cypress.
“I think both Sione and Justin will offer us plenty with their experience and knowledge and I think the three of us will work well together,” Gliddon said.
“Both coaches bring unique skillsets to the table and will be able to impart that onto our playing group.
“I’m genuinely excited about getting stuck in with Sione and Justin and assembling a team that can give the Sal’s NBL a real shake.”
Respected New Zealand age group manager Delwyn Whale has accepted the position of manager for the season.
Free agency opens in early November.