These are the toughest of times: Shamir
Dan Shamir has never known adversity like this in his twodecade professional coaching career. Injuries, controversies and defeats continue to dog the Israeli’s first season with the New Zealand Breakers and he’s the first to admit he’s feeling the pressure.
At 2-8 his club enters tomorrow’s Australian National Basketball League clash against LaMelo Ball and the Illawarra Hawks in Auckland about as desperate as a team can be at this stage of a season still shy of the halfway stage. After five straight defeats their playoff hopes already teeter on the brink, and their list of issues on and off the court continue to grow.
But what he’s not prepared to do is throw his arms in the air and declare, ‘‘this is just too tough’’. Shamir understands he and his players are stuck in the fight of their basketball lives and it’s time to come out swinging.
Nothing has been smooth sailing for the Breakers this season. Nothing. They saw general manager Dillon Boucher and assistant coach Mike Fitchett both quit close to the start of the campaign, key Tall Black Shea Ili also walked over the off-season, while a string of off-court incidents have been highlighted by the illfated decision to bring in serial offender Glen Rice Jr as a replacement player and then see him recently arrested for an alleged assault.
Then there have been the injuries. Finn Delany has only just made it on court; Rob Loe is still out with his skull fracture; Scotty Hopson is still working through a knee injury (and remains a doubtful starter this week); and now star scorer Corey Webster has gone down with an ankle injury.
Shamir doubts he will have either Hopson or Webster for the clash against the Hawks (who are making do without their own crocked star after ex-NBA standout Aaron Brooks went down with a season-ending injury), though both are trying their hardest. Hopson still hasn’t taken in part in the contact part of practice and Webster’s ankle, though improving, is not strong enough to entertain a near miracle return within a week.
But he is also well aware that a game like tomorrow’s, against a side with its own challenges (the Hawks are 3-8 and lost their first matchup against the Breakers in Auckland by 31 points), is as good as must-win if his club entertain any hope of fighting back into at least the playoff conversation.
Shamir must find a way to cajole his remaining fit players into a unit good enough to clip the wings of the high-flying Hawks, fresh off their epic 114-106 overtime victory over Cairns.
The alternative does not bear thinking about.
Asked how he was coping with all the adversity swirling around him, Shamir told Stuff it was a ‘‘different’’ situation to what he was used to.
‘‘It’s not something many of us have experienced,’’ he said of the big hole they have dug for themselves 10 games into this season. ‘‘On the other hand, almost every team in a competition like this goes through crisis points at some stage. This time it’s a little bit extreme because a lot of things have added up and any team anywhere in the world, when they come to a game without three starters, it’s difficult to establish something.
‘‘It’s not easy. It’s challenging. But if you sign up for this business you have to cope with these things and hopefully better days are ahead of all of us.’’
Shamir also sort of concedes they got it wrong with the signing of Rice, though admits hindsight always presents a much clearer picture of any situation.
‘‘Its tough to explain everything you’re going through and people who know how it works can understand why we did that. But there’s a lot of doubt. People doubt you. Myself, people don’t really know who I am as a coach. I didn’t come from here and it makes everything harder. Hopefully we’ll be able to gather around like many teams have done in the past.’’
For those ‘‘better days’’ to start tomorrow, the remaining fit Breakers simply have to be a lot better than they have been.
And Shamir is not shy in challenging import shooting guard Sek Henry and 18-year-old Next Stars sensation RJ Hampton to lead the way on that front.
‘‘Sek has definitely not found what everybody calls a rhythm,’’ said Shamir, who has seen the lefty guard play so much better in Israel. ‘‘He has been struggling. I know what he can do and he knows that too, and the good thing about our life is there’s always the chance it happens this week because there’s always the next game to give us the chance to do that.’’
Hampton, too, has to be even better than the flashes of brilliance he has offered thus far.