Winning ways spark Walsh and Breakers as NBA bounce looms
As his Aussie NBL team play for their lives today, US owner Matt Walsh is already plotting his next moves, including an NBA blockbuster, writes
As his New Zealand Breakers prepare to play for their NBL championship lives in front of a potential record crowd at Spark Arena today, owner Matt Walsh lets himself feel just a skerrick of satisfaction.
But that’s all. Just the tiniest hint of feelgood, and then there’s a job to be getting on with. Not only is there a grand final to stay alive in – Walsh’s Breakers are dormie 2-1 down in the best-offive series against the Sydney Kings after a bad defeat on Friday night – but the wheels never stop turning in a professional sports organisation such as Walsh’s.
He’s on the cusp of announcing a ‘‘minimum of two’’ preseason games against NBA teams that he swears will blow our socks off. ‘‘They will be by far the most exciting teams we’ve ever played ... I’m talking as exciting as it can be in the NBA,’’ he says.
So, you have to a figure a Lakers or Celtics matchup is on the horizon as the Breakers continue to take giant strides.
Walsh tells the Sunday StarTimes that a bounceback campaign like the Breakers have had in 2022-23, going 18-10 for the second best record through the regular season, and making the grand final series against the well-resourced, and defending champion, Kings, is an important step in the right direction for the club, but not necessarily a lifesaving one.
‘‘We’ve been the same for the last four years. We’ve got a very deep-pocketed investor group, and our support has never wavered,’’ he said. ‘‘The good thing is winning breeds success throughout the organisation, and makes everything easier. This is what we always envisioned –selling out all our games. We’re not there yet, we’ve had some hiccups, but I see over the next five years getting to the point where every game is a sellout, like Perth, and where we’re just a force to be reckoned with.’’
Walsh has a right to be excited. The club had nearly 9000 fans at Spark for game two of the finals against the Kings, and after the venue has been tweaked there’s expectation there will be close to 9700 in attendance today, which would make it the biggest turnout in club and Kiwi hoops history.
This after playing Friday’s game three against the Kings – a harrowing 91-68 defeat in which the Breakers scored just 21 second-half points – in front of a record NBL crowd of 18,049 at Qudos Bank Arena.
So, all things considered, the chief owner, who’s been absent for almost all of this season, has to be a happy man. After going 5-23 in 2021-22, his club is back contending for titles, packing the country’s biggest arena and making waves around the hoops world, with a young Frenchman in their midst set to be a top-20 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
So, still not for sale?
‘‘No,’’ he smiles. ‘‘But there’s going to come a point where I’ve taken it as far as I can, and there’s going to be someone more savvy, more smart, more wealthy — someone who will say ‘we’re a Kiwi and this belongs with us’.
‘‘It’s a business. I’ve poured my life into this for five years, and if it felt was someone made more sense for it, if it made sense for my partners to exit, and it was somebody who has a connection, I’d say, ‘OK I’ll be a fan’, or keep a small percentage. At some point that’s going to be the reality, but right now I love it.
‘‘The league is going up and up, media is up like 55%, and from day one when we invested, we always thought there would be a return on media rights. I think we’re just about there.
‘‘If I was worth $1 billion I would keep the Breakers forever, but at some point somebody is going to come along and say, ‘hey, I can take this further than you’. That’s the reality.’’
In the meantime there are next steps to take. Walsh made a big stride in the right direction by putting coach Mody Maor in charge of the post-Covid rebuild, and in year one he put together a roster that not only got the club back to winning ways, but did it the right way.
Now, keeping the group together is going to be the problem. Point guard Will McDowellWhite is already being pursued by a handful of clubs around the league and despite all three imports playing key roles in the turnaround, it’s never easy retaining that level of talent in a competitive environment.
Walsh says he’d love to keep ‘em all, but won’t be able to.
‘‘There’s a dual priority. It’s Will, it’s keeping our local core together, and we’re going to do everything we can. We’re not as successful as we are this year without Rayan Rupert either, so we need to nail our Next Star and we need to have amazing imports.
‘‘If right now all three of those guys said we want to come back, we need a raise, I would write the cheque.’’