Feuding owners won’t play ball
Don’t expect to see the New Zealand Breakers in Wellington anytime soon.
Breakers owner Matt Walsh is committed to taking the National Basketball League club around New Zealand for home games, when they’re not playing at their Spark Arena base in downtown Auckland.
Wellington didn’t feature this season and is unlikely to again, while long-time Saints owner Nick Mills is involved, Walsh said.
‘‘Nick Mills, the guy who runs the games there, is not a big fan of mine or the Breakers seemingly. He likes to speak from a place of no knowledge and rip us,’’ Walsh told
‘‘I’m not sure that would work because Nick Mills believes he’s [basketball’s creator] James Naismith and invented the game of basketball here in New Zealand. I’m not sure we’ll go back to Wellington as long as he’s in charge.’’
The Breakers played two games at Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena this season, including last night’s NBL regular season finale against South East Melbourne Phoenix. They also took games to Invercargill and New Plymouth.
Last February, they played in the capital for the first time in 15 years at TSB Arena, hosting the Illawarra Hawks in the last round game of the season.
With the Breakers already eliminated from the playoffs, the game drew a disappointing crowd of just 2336 fans and lost a substantial amount of money.
Wellington is a proud basketball region and for the Breakers to be a true New Zealand team they would no doubt like to get to the capital at least once a season.
Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams played high school basketball at Wellington’s Scots College and the Saints are a New Zealand national league force, winning a record 11 titles.
‘‘Wellington, they have a great venue, great fan base. We’re committed to playing in the regions and Wellington, there’s a huge amount of basketball fans there,’’ Walsh said.
‘‘Nick Mills seems to have an axe to grind with me in particular and the Breakers. Nick Mills knows it all.’’
Mills and the Saints put the game on in Wellington hoping for a large turnout. Former Saints coach Kevin Braswell was the Breakers coach at the time and the Kiwi ANBL side was also littered with past and present Wellington NBL players.
The game wasn’t well supported and Mills was still paying off the debt a year later.
‘‘They don’t want to come back to Wellington because they don’t want to take the risk,’’ Mills said.
‘‘The only thing that prevents the Breakers coming to Wellington is the fact that they don’t want to come to Wellington. The only reason me and him have got a beef is we lost a great deal of money putting the game on.’’
Mills pointed out the Breakers were fantastic for basketball in New Zealand and would ‘‘welcome them with open arms’’ if they were prepared to take the risk and return to the capital again.
He acknowledged he had been critical of the Breakers on radio earlier this season. The team were a rabble to begin the campaign, starting 2-8 and had warranted it. Having turned it around over the back half of the season, he commended the job the Breakers had done.
Walsh and the Breakers have repeatedly said they want to be a true New Zealand team, not just one playing in Auckland.
Continuing to take the team around the country for regular season games was important.
‘‘Like we did last year after the season is over we’ll assess everything and speak with the venues and the venue operators and find out what the appetite is for us to come back,’’ Walsh said.
‘‘The regional games this year have been a great success story for us.’’