Why Aren't The New Zealand Breakers Signing New Zealand Players?
These are glorious times for basketball in Aotearoa. Already established as the fastest growing sport in the country, we recently saw the New Zealand team finish fourth at the FIBA Men’s U17 World Championships, with Oscar Goodman crowned as part of the tournament’s All Star Five. Both Goodman and Julius Halaifonua have impressed at the NBA’s Global Academy showcase since then. We saw record numbers of kiwi players take the court in the previous Australian NBL season, with Tom Vodanovich and Walter Brown amongst the Tasmania JackJumpers squad that lifted the title – a squad that was put together by general manager Mika Vukona. The WNBL is starting to see more kiwis break through as well, including Tera Reed who was nominated for Best Sixth Woman award last season. Reed was also part of a young and inexperienced Tall Ferns roster that in 2023 produced their best ever Asia Cup performance.
Also in that squad was Charlisse Leger-Walker, who has spent the last few years doing unprecedented things as a New Zealand player in the USA college system and would probably already have become just our second ever WNBA player were it not for her injury. Instead she’s transferred to UCLA for one last stint, just in case there are any kiwi records left to break. Steven Adams will be back from injury soon and ready to remind the NBA why he is one of the most underrated players of his generation as he debuts for the Houston Rockets. He’s now exceeded 700 NBA games in his career. Sean Marks continues to pull the strings as general manager of the Brooklyn Nets. We’re coming to the end of another fantastic NZ NBL season. We recently saw the Tall Blacks channel that legendary underdog mana to beat a much more fancied Croatia team during Olympic qualifying. Basketball is the second most popular high school sport in NZ. It is thriving at youth level and senior level. It is thriving on both the women’s and men’s side. This is unprecedented growth and success.
But you wouldn’t know it from looking at the nation’s only fully professional basketball team. The New Zealand Breakers have just announced their latest two squad additions: Grant Anticevich and Sean Bairstow. A couple of young Australians who’ll fit in nicely on a roster that’s a whole lot more feesh and cheeps than fush and chups. As things stand, they have nine players under contract for NBL25: six Australians, two Americans, and one poor lonely New Zealander. They’ll add another import and a Next Star to that which leaves them room for one more local player. One plus one equals two. Short of making any unlikely cuts, we’re about to see a New Zealand Breakers outfit with a maximum of two New Zealanders in the team.
There are also three kiwi development players still under contract from last time: Alex McNaught, Max Darling, and Carlin Davison... but firstly those DP deals can be pretty flexible so there’s no guarantee they’ll all return, and secondly that trio played a combined four minutes last season. So don’t view that as any consolation. The Breakers also ignored a bunch of highly qualified kiwi options to hire a Finnish head coach with no prior experience at senior level, let alone in the Aussie NBL.
What’s going on here? How exactly has a New Zealand-based basketball franchise become so dismissive of the talent within its own shores? Well, if you have to ask then you haven’t been paying attention. This trend has lingered throughout this ownership regime, going back seven years now. The frustrating thing is that they seemed to have turned a corner in NBL23 when an increased emphasis on their “kiwi core” (not only in terms of players but also values) coincided with a run all the way to the finals. But they inexplicably wandered away from that last season, in which they were eliminated in the play-ins, and since then it’s degenerated even further.
It didn’t have to be this way. They had all the room in the world to go course-correct the waka, with only Dane Pineau, an Australian, fully contracted from last year’s roster. They gained another unexpected opportunity when inspirational head coach Mody Maor left early to pursue a gig in Japan instead of seeing out the final year of his contract. They were almost starting from scratch... and according to owner Matt Walsh (who is no longer the CEO, nor is he the general manager, nor does he live in New Zealand, but he still seems to call all the shots): “a strong local core will be paramount to the club's impending roster rebuild”.
Unfortunately, both Australians and New Zealanders count as local players in this league and the owner of the NZ Breakers does not see a distinction between them. Some will say he doesn’t have to, that’s he’s trying to construct a winning roster by any means necessary. Others will say that an NZ organisation that doesn’t even value NZ talent is just taking the piss.
Here are a couple of graphs from the end-of-season wrap article back in March...
You can probably guess which season marked the ownership change. Immediately prior to that, Paul Henare (who was doubling up as Tall Blacks and Breakers coach back then) had constructed a Breakers side that was entirely built of New Zealanders plus imports. Henare left as soon as the new owners came in, which in hindsight can be seen as the first of many clues.
NBL24 provided the lowest measurements on both of those graphs (total minutes per game and points per game by New Zealanders) but those records are only going to last for twelve months. Since then Tom Abercrombie has retired, Izayah Le’Afa has departed for the Sydney Kings, Finn Delany opted out to try his luck with Veltex Shizuoka in Japan (after a stint with Casademont Zaragoza in Spain), Dan Fotu is also going to Japan, and... well, actually, that’s all the Aotearoa blokes that they had on the main roster. However they did at least manage to coax Sam Mennenga over after a promising rookie NBL season with Cairns Taipans. Mennenga is on track to have fewer kiwi teammates with the Breakers than he did with the Taipans (we see you Sam Waardenburg)... unless you count Mojave King, who was born in Dunedin and has some proud Otago basketballing heritage in his whanau. But if you count him then you’re counting a bloke who was raised in Australia and considers himself Australian and has consistently said through the years that he wants to represent Australia if he ever gets the chance.
Again, though, this is no sudden shock. The Breakers have been trending this way for ages, refusing to learn the right lessons from the only truly successful season since the ownership change (the season in which Matt Walsh had the least influence, just sayin’). It’d be redundant to re-litigate six years of history so we won’t do that - roll back through the TNC archives if you’re looking for receipts - nor do we need to because their recent head coach search sums the situation up on its own.
There are numerous high calibre NZ coaches on the domestic scene and beyond but when Mody Maor – whose force of personality and basketball integrity had been keeping this team together – departed they never even seemed to ponder the possibility. Judd Flavell is a champion coach with Canterbury Rams and was an assistant with the Breakers the last time they won the title. Aaron Young is a current assistant with the Perth Wildcats. Zico Coronel was an assistant with the Breakers during this regime, one of the few NZers to get such an honour (they had zero NZ assistant coaches in either of the past two campaigns). Probably not Mike Fitchett because he left the franchise on less than cordial terms six years ago... but there’s Brent Matahaere and Matt Lacey there too. Not to mention Tall Blacks head coach Pero Cameron, or his assistant Ross McMains who is a player development coach with the Boston Celtics who just won the NBA championship. Paul Henare’s still going strong in Japan. None of these guys would have been seriously considered... but it goes to show the calibre of coaches that our nation is producing.
Instead the only rumour was that they Breakers had taken a crack at enticing Jeff Van Gundy. Yes, the NBA commentary veteran who hasn’t been a head coach since he left the Houston Rockets in 2007. Chasing the biggest name possible, regardless of all else. JVG shrugged them off since he’d already agreed to join the LA Clippers as an assistant so in the end the job went to Petteri Koponen. A legendary player for Finland and across the EuroLeague (twice logging 50/40/90 seasons) who won the EuroCup in 2015 with BC Khimki of Russia. Koponen gave NBA Summer League a couple of goes with the Portland Trail Blazers but he never made it to the NBA itself. Probably not a coincidence that he shares a common club with Matt Walsh: both having played for Virtus Bologna, albeit not at the same time.
At 36 years of age, Koponen is very young for a head coach. He does have a few years of experience with the Adidas Next Generation tournament (sort of a EuroLeague under-18s competition) as well as some Helsinki Basketball Academy stuff. That’s about it though. When Coach Kop was announced, the Breakers made a song and dance about how he was “an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas”... but that was a bold-faced lie. The Spurs website listed seven assistant coaches for Summer League and he was not one of them. What he was, was one of six “guest” coaches who worked on Kenny Trevino’s staff. That’s Kenny Trevino’s staff, not Gregg Popovich’s staff, because it was only Summer League after all. Trevino is the lead video analyst for Popovich’s NBA crew having joined the franchise 11 years ago as an equipment manager (aka a ballboy).
That’s not to discredit a great opportunity for an up-and-coming coach who has clearly been identified as someone with great potential. More just to point out that the Breakers have a habit of bending the truth to suit their narratives. Old mate Matt Walsh assured us that this guy is one of the best young coaches on the planet but we’ll just have to take his word for that because so far Kop’s experience has all been centred around youth/developmental stuff. This is his first senior head coaching role. Walsh calls it a “good match” and says he’s “happy to go with [his] gut” (a benefit of the doubt that plenty of NZ players and coaches would one day like to experience in their favour). Oh but the best was yet to come. Take a geeze at these poetic offerings...
Matt Walsh: “The head coaching position at the BNZ Breakers is one of the most sought-after jobs in basketball outside of the NBA, and we had amazing interest shown in the role over the last month. My goal was to find the best coach to lead the Breakers and I am very confident we have found the right person for the job. Being the Head Coach of the Breakers comes with a lot of responsibility. We ran an exhaustive search that included coaches from all over the world and included former NBA head coaches. Petteri was an incredible player who has seamlessly transitioned to coaching and shares my vision of growing the game of basketball in New Zealand. Breaker Nation, we got a good one, and I can't wait for you all to meet 'Coach Kop’.”
One of the most sought-after jobs in the world outside the NBA yet Mody Maor just left to sign with a middling team in Japan. Righto, gotcha. As for the hilarious claim that Matt Walsh has a “vision of growing the game of basketball in New Zealand”... let’s just say that very few things contain more nonsense than a Breakers press release. Ignoring kiwi players. Ignoring kiwi coaches. Expecting kiwi fans to still cough up for season tickets. Whatever that vision happens to be, it seems more like a threat than a promise.
For example, you know how the Warriors and Wellington Phoenix have a whole array of reserves and age grade teams developing players? The Breakers don’t do any of that. No academy. No hints of trying to get a reserve team in the NZ NBL the way that the Wellington Phoenix (and soon Auckland FC) have arranged. Don’t even begin to ask about the lack of women’s investment either. The WNBL would take a Breakers side in a heartbeat – they literally just had the Melbourne Boomers, a perennial finals contenders, sold and rebranded as Geelong United so they’d love a bit of stable investment from an established NBL side (ahead of the two leagues moving under the same ownership as of the 2025-26 season). But nobody’s talking about that. Walshy’s vision doesn’t include women or grassroots. Or New Zealanders at all.
There’s also a decent case to be made that this is simply not a roster well-suited for such a fresh coach. Under Mody Maor you’d have given these deals more trust but without him suddenly there are a whole lot of dice-rolls in this group. Mojave King was good enough to get drafted to the NBA but he never went further than Summer League and only started 8 of his 45 G-League games across two teams (averaging 6.1 points per game with 40.6/25.2/73.8 shooting splits). He’s a dude in a transitional period of his career. Jonah Bolden did play 61 times in the NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers but then he retired at age 25 in order to become a cryto-bro... before returning to the Sydney Kings last season after three years away from the game. Again, huge potential but no idea what the Breakers are going to get from him.
Sean Bairstow did five years at college (he’s the younger bro of Cameron and Jarrod): four at Utah State before transferring to Virginia Commonwealth Uni as a grad student where he averaged 10.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game as a regular starter. Very erratic shooting throughout his college career, especially from deep. Even Sam Mennenga needs a mention here as a second-year pro who averaged 6.8 points and 3.9 rebounds in 17 minutes per game last term. The Breakers will undoubtedly add another Next Star to the equation too (that’s a whole other can of worms). So many project players and then they add a project coach to the equation. Make it make sense.
NZ Breakers NBL25 Current Roster
PG - Parker Jackson-Cartright (I) | Mitchell McCarron | Alex McNaught (DP)
SG – Mojave King | Sean Bairstow
SF – Grant Anticevich
PF - Jonah Bolden | Carlin Davison (DP) | Max Darling (DP)
C – Freddie Gillespie (I) | Sam Mennenga | Dane Pineau
The funny thing is that despite the Breakers being so lame about everything, last season still saw more kiwi players take the court in the Australian NBL than ever before. There were 24 of them overall, 25 if you wanna count Keanu Rasmussen (kiwi dad, just spent a season with Hawke’s Bay Hawks). Most of those were therefore with Australian franchises which proves that these fellas are good enough to find their opportunities even if the Breakers don’t recognise them.
That pattern is not changing. Melbourne United currently have three kiwis on their main roster: Shea Ili, Flynn Cameron, and Rob Loe. Perth Wildcats have two in Hyrum Harris and Tai Webster, plus Dontae Russo-Nance as a development player. Sam Waardenburg has re-signed with Cairns Taipans. Izayah Le’Afa’s swap to the Sydney Kings feels like a fantastic fit. Tom Vodanovich is seeking to make it four NBL finals appearances in four years with four different teams as he laces up for South East Melbourne Phoenix. Tohi Smith-Milner signed a two-year deal with the Brisbane Bullets where he’ll team up with Tyrell Harrison who was shortlisted for Most Improved Player last campaign. Sounds like Walter Brown should remain a DP for Tasmania JackJumpers and there’s still room for more where that came from. There’s no need to be gloomy about all this because Aotearoa basketball is booming in spite of the Breakers and their Aussie local fetish.
And, look, there’s something else we need to consider here too: many of those aforementioned ballers did used to play for the Breakers. Used to but no longer. The Breakers never seem to go after the hot prospect college graduates like Yanni Wetzell, Sam Waardenburg, Sam Mennenga, and Flynn Cameron. Surely they could have had a shot with Russo-Nance, a native Aucklander and one of NZ’s best teenaged players. Nope, that didn’t happen either. All five signed with rival NBL franchises instead. The Breaks did go out of their way to sign Wetzell and Mennenga after they’d proved themselves in their rookie seasons, similar to how they coaxed Le’Afa out of his second year with SEM Phoenix. But then Wetzell left after one year to move to Europe and Le’Afa was quick to jump at the Kings offer after two years in Auckland. They didn’t stick around.
Shea Ili was the most regrettable example. The now-perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate was granted a release back when RJ Hampton came along and was promised a chunk of Ili’s minutes. How’d that one work out? A year ago, Tom Vodanovich was released early from his contract so that he could chase some cheques in the Philippines. The Breakers retained the right of first refusal if he returned within that original contract. He did return... but not to the Breakers (winning a championship with Tasmania instead). Finn Delany came back on the strength of Mody Maor’s presence but he didn’t seem to have much fun last season and promptly gapped it again. Admittedly the Webster Bros departures were swept up in the covid stuff... but there’s no doubting they weren’t treated very respectfully on the way out. Let us not forget when Corey Webster asked to leave and got told he was the worst starting two-guard in the league and therefore owed it to the team to stay. They released him anyway a few months later with the agreement that he’d come back after a quick spell in China, re-signing with a new three-year deal. Then they cut ties with Corey just one year into that deal, leaving everyone to ponder what the original fuss was all about.
But worst of all was the case of Robert Loe. For so long he was an undercover hero for the Breakers, a player that the advanced stats absolutely adored. But Dan Shamir slashed his minutes in his second season in charge and then came the covid situation. With the team based in Australia, Loe had to balance that lifestyle with being away from his heavily pregnant wife. That led to Loe leaving the team to be with the missus following the birth which incited the Breakers to put out this baffling statement...
For the record, Loe did return to play later that season. There was no reason to rule him out like that, nor to be so terse about it, but they did it anyway, treating a long-serving fan-favourite player like he was a vicious traitor. Meanwhile here’s how Loe described that decision in his own words to the NZ Herald a few years later...
NZH: Your decision to leave the Breakers in Australia during the Covid exile strained some of your relationships within the team – did that play a part [in the decision to retire]?
Loe: Yeah, I think so. All those things help weigh you down. As far as the strained relationships, I made the right call for my family. It’s never easy abandoning a team. I had a lot of friends and they were all going through their struggles away from families, living in a hotel, which wasn’t a great situation for anyone. And I try to be a good teammate at all times. But I think any father or mother would have done the same thing in the circumstances. My wife, Kelly, had postpartum depression. She is American and had no support here – she couldn’t fly her family over because of Covid and my family lives in Nelson. She had a C-section and wasn’t even supposed to be carrying things up stairs, and we have stairs. All these things build up. I spent one night at home with her, then had to go into camp after the birth. It was just really tough.”
Sorry to say it, but you surely cannot read those quotes without thinking the Breakers organisation acted like dickheads during that saga. Anyway, Loe returned to the team. He played a reliable bench role the following season under Coach Maor as the Breaks took it all the way to the NBL finals. Then they low-balled him in contract negotiations so he retired (at age 31), citing a desire to be nearer to family without all the travel. However, that retirement didn’t last. Melbourne United brought him over for the first couple months of last season as an injury replacement and now he’s been summoned out of retirement for a second time, signing a full contract with United for the upcoming campaign.
Walshy seemed confused by the original un-retirement...
But perhaps when you’ve been treated like human garbage for trying to be there for your vulnerable missus, undervalued in the team rotation for multiple years, and then stiffed in contract negotiations... it’s not really such a shocker that you might be open to an opportunity at a more wholesome, successful, and supportive organisation. In the end, the question might be less about why the Breakers aren’t signing any kiwis, and more about why the best kiwi players don’t actually want to play for them.
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