‘I could be a Breaker’
Tall Blacks star Isaac Fotu is officially open to the prospect of playing for the Breakers in the next Australian NBL season.
That’s not quite a signature on the dotted line, but nor is it a hard ‘‘no’’. The 26-year-old world-class forward, who has been plying his trade professionally in Europe since 2014, made that clear when he spoke for the first time about the chance of lining up for his home-town club just before a workout at Breakers headquarters on Wednesday.
‘‘I’ve been in talks with the club and if that’s the way it goes,’’ Fotu, who was a development player with the Breakers, said. ‘‘But I’m just here to work out in the off-season and we’ll see how that goes.’’
Fotu and fellow Tall Black Tai Webster both returned early from Europe to spend lockdown with their families in Auckland and are now weighing their future options amid the uncertainty of the Covid19 landscape.
Fotu played for Treviso in Italy last season and Webster for Galatasaray in Turkey. Both are off contract and the Breakers have made no secret of the fact they would love nothing more than to team them with the five they already have under contract in a sort of Kiwi dream team for the
2020-21 Australian NBL season. In the normal course of events the Breakers would have little chance of luring the pair, given their earning power in Europe. Both would have to take significant pay-cuts to ply their trade at home.
But the coronavirus has created a lot of uncertainty in the European market, both from a practical and financial viewpoint. There remains major doubt about what the next season will look like, how much travel will be permitted and whether clubs can even survive the financial crisis that the 2020 shutdown has inflicted.
The Breakers’ pitch is very much centred on the lifestyle aspect and the fact that one year playing in the relative safe haven of New Zealand and Australia, while the rest of the world figures things out, might just be in everybody’s best interests. The fact that both Fotu and Webster came through the club as youngsters and have strong connections to the current group firms that link even further.
Webster’s older brother, Corey, is one of four Tall Blacks locked in to deals at the club, while Fotu’s sister, Ella, is a community coach for the organisation.
Breakers owner and chief executive Matt Walsh has made no secret of his desire to have Fotu and a second Webster brother on board for next season and said on Wednesday the duo were well aware a place was there for them if they wanted it.
‘‘Those guys know who we are,’’ said Walsh.
‘‘They’re really good players, they know our interest level and we also know how good they are. It has to work both ways. If it works out for this year and beyond it would be fantastic, but in the meantime they’re going to work out with Corey and Tom [Abercrombie] and Rob [Loe] and others, get some runs going and hopefully we can attract them to play for us.’’