Basketball: Breakers part of NBL push into Asia

By PETER JESSUP


The Breakers will be part of a push by the Australian NBL into Asia with management from new league sponsor Philips at the team's training yesterday to underline this.

During the season that tips off at the Trusts Stadium in Henderson tonight at least one game will be played in Singapore or China.

The Breakers also hope to play an end-of-season game in China and in future seasons Asian teams are likely to be invited into the competition.

The game is booming in the region and Asian cable TV will drive the expansion, with the intention of there eventually being seven Australian teams, the Breakers and four sides from Asia in the competition.

The NBL has been pushing for a foothold in Asia for some time, with the Melbourne Tigers and Perth Wildcats playing pre-season tournaments in China and Taipei respectively this year.

Perth are scheduled to play the Tigers in the first NBL game in Asia, either Singapore or China in January.

The Breakers start their second season tonight against the team they beat in their first-ever game, the Adelaide 36ers, with everybody fit, unlike the start to season one.

Linchpin Mike Chappell has fully recovered from an ankle injury. Both he and co-captains Paul Henare and Pero Cameron say the team is better balanced and better prepared second time around. Newcomer Shawn Redhage is rated as a man to watch and one who will be a major impact from the bench.

"I think there'll be a number of guys scoring this year," said Chappell, who was the Breakers' most consistent shooter last season.

He believes new centre Ben Pepper is capable of averaging a double-double in points and rebounds throughout the year.

"I don't want to put pressure on him but he's going to give us a real post threat," he said of Pepper's ability to work inside the arc.

Cameron was nonplussed about sharing captaincy duties with long-term team-mate Henare.

"I've been a captain so long I can't remember and that leadership is something that will still be there. Dillon [Boucher], Mike, the Aussies, they all bring something."

The "c" was just a letter on the score sheet "but Paulie will have to share the promotional duties now, that's the only change you'll see".

Cameron said he felt fitter than he had for most of the last season. The Olympics had been good preparation match-fitness wise. Combinations were still being built but Cameron felt they were already better than last season. Consistency that had been lacking last season was a major goal this time round.

The teams

* NZ Breakers: Pero Cameron and Paul Henare (co-captains), Mike Chappell, Ben Pepper, Aaron Olson, Dillon Boucher, Blake Truslove, Ben Thompson, Lindsay Tait, Shawn Redhage, Mika Vukona, Hayden Allen.

* Adelaide 36ers: Brett Maher (c), Mark Nash, Darren Ng, Willie Farley, Jacob Holmes, Jason Williams, Oscar Foreman, Dusty Rychart, Paul Rees