Breakers boss vows.
Kiwi basketball club may be down, but they’re definitely not out, says owner Matt Walsh.
MARC HINTON reports
The New Zealand Breakers, on the surface, appear to be in a heck of a state. They have just finished the worst Australian National Basketball League season in their history, signed off on a 10-game losing streak, have barely seen their home fans in two years, their best player just cut loose to play in Spain and, well, who knows what this pandemic has in store for the 2022-23 season?
But owner and chief executive Matt Walsh is not the type to indulge in unnecessary naval-gazing at times like these and is adamant that, not only are better times just round the corner, but his beleaguered band of players, coaches and support staff did him proud during a 5-23 campaign that saw the Auckland-based club finish with comfortably the worst record in the league.
Of course, the 2021-22 season comes with an asterisk attached for the Breakers. They did not play a single home game, seeing out the entire six-month campaign in Australia, flitting from temporary base to temporary base, from hotel to apartment, training gym to arena, all the while negotiating multiple COVID-19 outbreaks, strict health measures and a complete absence of the comforts of home.
“It’s really hard evaluating the team given the circumstances of the last two years,” says Walsh, from his family home in Philadelphia. “We were home last year for 17 days; this year not at all. We’ve spent 12 of the last 24 months on the road. We’re the only pro [basketball] team in the world that’s gone through this.
“It hasn’t been a level playing field, and this isn’t me pouting or complaining, it’s reality. In order to play, we had to live on the road. I don’t think anyone could quantify the residual effect of what two years on the road could have on a team.”
Backup centre Rob Loe, who had his wife and 1-year-old boy along for a chunk of the campaign, added: “It’s hard to put into words the experience. It had its positives, but it definitely had a lot of drawbacks. I think it gave us all the chance to find out who we are as people and what we value. It was tough. There’s no other way to describe it.”
Walsh tends towards optimism in his outlook (a common trait among professional sports franchise owners) and says: “I really hope we’ll play home games next year, and if that’s the case I feel very confident we’ll put a great team out … we’ve just got to see which guys we want to bring back and where we go from here. Last year we went into the off-season bringing almost all our key local guys back, and we were going to be playing home games. Then that rug got pulled out from under us.
“This year it’s different. We’re not coming back with all the key local guys, we’ll take a look at our imports, and obviously we’re losing a couple of young guys to the NBA. We’ll retool and get ready. That’s just the nature of pro basketball.”
Walsh insists he won’t “blow up” the team and start again. But in some ways he has no choice. Just two players remained on contract at season’s end – little-used centre Loe and oft-injured perimeter player Tom Abercrombie – after star centre Yanni Wetzell exercised an out-clause in his contract to head to Europe. The club moved quickly to re-sign young big Sam Timmins but have plenty more to do.
Two of the success stories of the season, young French “projects” Ousmane Dieng and Hugo Besson, are both expected to be picked up in the NBA Draft. Walsh insists they were valuable additions, despite the temporary nature of their contribution (Kiwi fans never got to see them play).
“I know one of the criticisms is we should sign young Kiwi players. If there were guys at that level we would sign them. I’ve got no regrets signing Hugo and Ousmane. They were great pros, and worked their tails off … if you’re asking me where we missed, it wasn’t with those two guys.”
Despite the grim results, Walsh insists he was “super proud” of his players who, with one or two exceptions, remained grimly competitive to the bitter end.
“I know the amount of work that’s gone in, I can see how much they care, I see nobody ever quit, and to see us fight without any support from fans in person … there has never been a time I’ve been upset with a performance. They’ve tried their best.”