Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones (born 5 January 2001) is a New Zealand

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who will join the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

during the

2025 NBA Summer League The 2025 NBA Summer League (branded as '' NBA 2K26'' Summer League for sponsorship reasons) will be an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, ...

. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

UC San Diego Tritons The UC San Diego Tritons are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of California, San Diego. The Tritons compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Big West Conference (BWC). ...

and the

Hawaii–Hilo Vulcans The Hawaii–Hilo Vulcans are the athletics sports teams for the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, located in Hilo, Hawaii, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Vulcans compete as members of the Pacific West Conference The Pacific ...

. He previously played for the

Wellington Saints The Wellington Saints are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Wellington. The Saints compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Bank Arena. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as ...

of the NBL.

Career

Tait-Jones attended St Patrick's College in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, New Zealand. After graduating, Tait-Jones played for the

for a season, before committing to play college basketball in the United States at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (UH Hilo) is a public university in Hilo, Hawaii, Hilo, Hawaiʻi. It is one of ten campuses of the University of Hawaiʻi system. It was founded as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School in 1945 and ...

. After three seasons with Hawaii

– The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Hilo, he transferred to the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. In his second season with the Tritons, he was named the Big West Player of the Year and selected in the 2024-25 All Big West First Team.

Professional career

On June 27, 2025 after going undrafted in the

2025 NBA draft The 2025 NBA draft was the 79th edition of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual draft. Like the 2024 draft, this draft took place over two nights. The draft consisted of 59 picks as opposed to the full 60 due to the New York Knick ...

, Tait-Jones signed a NBA Summer league contract with the

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;", Hawaii-Hilo , , 12 , , 12 , , 29.9 , , .503 , , .313 , , .688 , , 8.5 , , 1.8 , , 1.2 , , 1.2 , , 16.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;", Hawaii-Hilo , , 27 , , 27 , , 30.1 , , .497 , , .242 , , .739 , , 8.0 , , 2.4 , , 1.5 , , .7 , , 17.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , style="text-align:left;", Hawaii-Hilo , , 23 , , 23 , , 32.7 , , .466 , , .259 , , .701 , , 9.2 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , .4 , , 17.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , style="text-align:left;",

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

, , 33 , , 33 , , 29.6 , , .561 , , .346 , , .731 , , 5.8 , , 2.9 , , 1.1 , , .3 , , 13.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2024–25 , style="text-align:left;",

, , 35 , , 35 , , 29.6 , , .576 , , .313 , , .751 , , 5.4 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , , .4 , , 19.1

References

External links

UC San Diego Tritons bioHawaii–Hilo Vulcans bio
2001 births Living people 21st-century New Zealand sportsmen Hawaii–Hilo Vulcans New Zealand expatriate basketball people in the United States New Zealand men's basketball players Small forwards Sportspeople from Wellington City UC San Diego Tritons men's basketball players Wellington Saints players {{NewZealand-basketball-bio-stub