Boucher’s pride a
WHEN Dillon Boucher would look up from his desk at Breakers HQ and see his good friend, and head coach, Paul Henare had walked in and closed the door, a shiver would run down the spine of the first-year General Manager.
‘‘What now? What next?’’ became Boucher’s default reaction to the presence of a stern-faced Henare in his office. Inevitably it meant they had another injury to deal with, and another new pathway to map out. Also that a long night lay ahead for both navigating that challenging terrain.
In a funny way it became the theme of this New Zealand Breakers season in the Australian NBL which finished at 14-14, just one win (or one Perth defeat) short of a spot in the playoffs.
It was agonisingly close, with the Wildcats needing to win the final regular season game in Melbourne to tip out the Kiwis, and getting up 96-94.
For a club that had played in five of the previous six grand finals (winning four), it had to be classified a failure. Never mind that 6-2 finish, and those finalgame heroics at the NSEC against Melbourne, they fell short of their ultimate goal.
Yet Boucher, who played in the first three of those championship campaigns, refuses to grade this season so negatively. He knows all the club had to go through, with seven major injuries that either ended or curtailed players’ seasons, with the Corey Webster affair, with the incredible drama around Akil Mitchell nearly losing an eye in the name of hoops, to the final, almost incomprehensible, setback when warrior captain Mika Vukona was hospitalised with a knee infection and could not play in the must-win finale against Melbourne.
For a first-yearGMand his rookie head coach, long-time team-mates, close friends and hoops tragics, this was one of those years you put down to experience and engage that maxim that what doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.
‘‘I anticipated there would be ups and downs but certainly not quite as many as we’ve had,’’ reflects Boucher in a wideranging interview.
‘‘The amount of obstacles we’ve had to overcome is something you’d expect in five seasons, not one. But I love challenges and I love being challenged.
‘‘It’s been great for my growth, great for Pauli’s growth, great for the assistant coaches’ growth and great for the office team’s growth as well. It’s almost a blessing in disguise. If we are to paint a positive picture from the season it would be that everybody’s had to grow in their roles and learn on the fly with everything that’s been thrown at us.’’
Consider their catalogue of injuries: they lost Shea Ili for the first two-thirds of the season with a back stress fracture, import point guard Ben Woodside to a ruptured plantar fascia, Tall Blacks guard Corey Webster to hip, back and knee problems, replacement import David Stockton to a lower back issue, Tom Abercrombie for six weeks to a fractured hand, Mitchell for the back end of the season to that horrific eye poke and, finally, Vukona who had played through a catalogue of strains only to be undone at the last hurdle by a knee infection.
Only two Breakers (Alex Pledger and Kirk Penney) appeared in every game − an unprecedented low number. Five imports turned out (a club high), only two of whom were part of the original team. And there was also