Shamir: We got it wrong on Rice
The Breakers tried to shut down any talk of disgraced import Glen Rice Jr in the wake of their first game since his contract termination – a notable 96-85 home victory over the Brisbane Bullets that breathed some much-needed life into their NBL campaign.
We’ve moved on, they said. The inference was we all should too.
Except how could we when Rice’s shadow hung over Monday night’s Australian NBL clash against the Queenslanders at Spark Arena the way it did? Rice played just three games in an ill-fated stint as a replacement for injured American forward Scotty Hopson, and squeezed in a season’s worth of dramas in a rollercoaster ride that struggled to stay on the rails.
After Monday’ night’s clash, which saw Hopson return after a five-week absence because of a knee injury and Corey Webster, too, following a fortnight out with an ankle sprain, Rice’s situation had to be acknowledged, for all the Breakers’ reluctance.
Normally voluble owner Matt Walsh turned down requests to speak on the matter. But just hours earlier, Rice’s contract had been finally terminated by the Breakers following his second arrest (for a breach of bail conditions) in the last few weeks. It ended a sorry chapter in the history of a club that has strayed markedly from its famous ‘‘no dickheads’’ policy.
Rice has talent. There is no doubt about that. His name tops the league’s points scoring averages with 25.0 over three games. Not coincidentally, the Breakers lost all three of those contests.
He could score the basketball. But he was a poor defender and no team player. The ball stuck in his hands. When he returned, following a threegame suspension, to play last Friday night in Cairns in a regrettable last roll of the dice, his presence threw the entire team into a funk. He got his 30. It meant nothing in one of the Breakers’ worst performances of the season.
Before that game there had been optimism, verging on hysteria, within the Breakers organisation who genuinely believed Rice could make a triumphant return. Instead, it was another train wreck.
Head coach and director of basketball Dan Shamir, like Walsh, was doing his best after the Bullets victory to move the narrative forward. But he at least accepted he was duty bound to say something after rolling the dice on a player he had history with (and, frankly, should have known better than to sign.)
‘‘I want to move forward,’’ said Shamir when asked if he regretted signing Rice. ‘‘I know the players feel it too. We as an organisation need to move forward. I repeat we did everything we did after thinking about it a lot, after communicating with coaching, management, ownership and players.
‘‘We thought about everything. It was all for the good of the Breakers and it didn’t work. The bottom line is it didn’t work.
‘‘You never know it in advance. I always watch games and think I made a mistake here, a mistake there, but it’s always for future reference. I never regret what we do because we don’t control the result . . . we just control the
decisions.’’ To his credit, Shamir closed the matter by acknowledging his own responsibility in the avoidable debacle.
‘‘I’m not shying from responsibility,’’ he said.
‘‘I’m not going to put it on anybody else. But we are a very healthy organisation. Although sometimes people think we have issues, internally we are very healthy and we’re not playing any blame game.
‘‘Not with players, coaches or ownership. This is our mindset. We’re looking forward to the next day and the next game.’’
Health is the key word here. With Hopson and Webster back, the Breakers looked a different team as they improved to 4-9. Even with teenage American star RJ Hampton sitting out with a mystery hip flare-up that could see him miss a week or two at the least while it is assessed and addressed.
The Kiwi club missed the NBAbound point guard’s speed but looked a better organised offensive group with Sek Henry, Jarrad Weeks and Webster stepping into the distribution role. They shot 52 per cent from the floor, 43 from deep and moved the ball much, much better than a few nights earlier.
Webster led the way with an outstanding 23 points after being a game-day decision.
‘‘I felt I was good enough to come out and contribute,’’ said the in-form shooting guard who posted his seventh output of 20 points or more this season.
But he had help. Tom Abercrombie was quality en route to 19 points on 5-of8 shooting, including a trio of triples; Hopson’s length and poise were crucial as he chipped in with 14 points and six defensive boards; while Finn Delany was full of aggression as he added 14 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
‘‘Today was the first time we were close to having everybody. That means everybody with a guy who didn’t practise for two weeks, and another guy didn’t practise for five weeks,’’ Shamir said.
‘‘This group is dealing with everything in the right way and we are focusing on the basketball. We’re not making excuses, but everything we did was a result of having serious issues with injured players in a tough, tough competition.
‘‘There is a lot of basketball to play.’’ That’s the upside for this suddenly fit Breakers group. They have six days now to prepare for Adelaide at Spark on Sunday.
Another step down the post-Glen Rice pathway.