Basketball: Maher off to China

Tom Maher, who coached the New Zealand women's basketball team into the quarter-finals at the Athens Olympics, has stood down after receiving an offer from China.

Basketball New Zealand re-signed Maher last November in the face of strong competition from China, whom the Tall Ferns beat in pool play at Athens.

But the 2008 Olympic hosts, who finished ninth in Athens, were not done, upping the ante to a level Maher could not resist.