Dunno about you but I’m getting pretty pumped about this basketball World Cup. Most teams are amassing as we speak, getting in the final licks that they hope will give them that crucial one percent extra, with a tad over two weeks to go until the big show tips off.
And with a triple swoop on Wednesday the Breakers have now completed their roster for the upcoming season. ‘Director of Basketball’ Dan Shamir will have a dozen players to juggle and rotate, as well as Terry Li and with two more development players yet to be named.
We’re still two weeks away from the day that Paul Henare announces the Tall Blacks’ official World Cup squad. Before then there’s a training camp in Japan (we’re they are right now) with a couple games against their hosts to follow, then two games against Canada in Sydney… and straight after that we’ll get the final cuts to the squad.
The word was that there was going to be a new Breakers announcement on Wednesday, and a big one too. Then the word was that it was going to be a double announcement which makes it even bigger.
Sooner or later some clever bugger is going to write the definitive history of the first eleven years of the Oklahoma City Thunder and it’s going to be essential reading. Since the franchise upped and moved from Seattle they’ve remained one of the most fascinating teams out there… and it all comes down to three straight draft picks.
New Zealand’s only professional basketball team just signed a Chinese teenager to a development player contract. Terry Li comes from the NBA Global Academy which runs out of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence. He’s a 198cm tall guard, meant to be extremely athletic, and he’s signed on a three year deal.
And there it is. We knew Russell Westbrook was going to be traded, it was just a matter of where and when and a cheeky Woj Bomb on a Friday arvo cleared all that up. Russell Westbrook to the Rockets, Chris Paul and two future first rounders (plus two potential pick swaps) to the Thunder in return.
There’s a new King of Brooklyn folks, and his name is Sean Marks. Free agency honestly could not have gone better for the Brooklyn Nets as everything came together in perfect harmony, all those seeds that they began to plant in February 2016 when Sean Marks was announced as the new GM of the franchise have sprouted and grown and blossomed and now born fruit.
Back in the day, trading James Harden had a lot to do with avoiding paying him and going into the luxury tax. The haul they got back for Harden was a bit mud but one piece did turn out to be something useful: the 12th overall pick in 2013 that soon became Steven Adams. So it’d be ironic if they then traded Adams for luxury tax reasons but that’s basketball for ya.
Everything until now has led up to this point. All the cheeky little trades, the massive ones too, all the salary dumps they took upon themselves, all the restricted free agent tricks, all the G-League reclamation projects and the draft picks, all the extra hours spent in the gym from the coaches and the players, all the late nights from Sean Marks and his crew in the front office.
So, in celebration of what we’ve got, here’s the tale of the season that was, as told in delightful, insightful, self-deprecating, and hilarious Steven Adams quotes, for the fourth year in a row. Onwards, dear squires.
This has been a… weird offseason for the New Zealand Breakers. The second year under new ownership is bringing about some serious changes as Matty Walsh and mates begin to properly stamp their mark after a transitional year last time out.
In an age where personalities seem to be more and more dominant, Kawhi Leonard doesn’t have one. In an age where over-exposure is just personal branding and privacy is a forgotten relic, Kawhi Leonard keeps to himself.
It is with a heavy heart and a conflicted mind that I say to you now something that you pretty much already knew: Steven Adams will not be playing for the Tall Blacks at the 2019 World Cup. He was named in the 25-man longlist last week but that was just to cover all bases, it’s since been confirmed via a statement released by his agency that the dream is on hold until some other time in the hypothetical future.
A few days ago, Breakers owner/CEO Matt Walsh teased that there was a “global” announcement coming up from the club. Not just national, not just continental… but global. This at a time where Breakers trust amongst fans is at a pretty low ebb following a disappointing season, a lack of connection with new ownership, and some weird free agency vibes.
The NBA draft lottery is a weird phenomenon. In order to figure out the arrangement of picks in the upcoming draft, the NBA gets a bunch of lawyers in to oversee a bunch of ping pong balls popping out of a machine (all undertaken away from prying eyes) and everybody freaks out about it.
The Breakers made their first major signing for the upcoming NBL season early this week and it wasn’t a massively crazy one. Rob Loe is returning after playing a year for Cairns, the big fella already rumoured to want to return to Aotearoa for family reasons so it only made sense that he’d end up back with the Breakers sooner or later.
It might not be a fair question to ask but it was an unavoidable one those last two games of the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season while watching Adams sit quietly on the bench as his team failed to close out games in the fourth quarter, losing in five to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Perspectives are a funny thing. While we’re all out here dissecting the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first round exit from the NBA playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets are getting widely praised for… a first round exit from the NBA playoffs.
Last play of the fourth quarter, scores are tied 113-113, and Damian Lillard has the ball in his hands following a miss from Russell Westbrook. Paul George steps up to guard him as he takes it into the halfcourt. Dame stands there. Time ticks down.