Basketball: Paul Henare angers club with offshore move

Basketballer Paul Henare is off to join his Tall Blacks captain and coach Pero Cameron and Tab Baldwin in Turkey with their club Banvitspor.

Henare, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist with the Tall Blacks and the Breakers' captain in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL), flew out yesterday for Turkey, after being sounded out by Baldwin to join the side until the end of the Turkish season.

"This morning, when I left home, my daughter started crying and didn't want me to go," Henare said yesterday.

"That's the first time either of my kids has ever done that.

"It has already been a bad year in terms of time with the family with the Commonwealth Games and the world championships coming up in August -- now this."

Baldwin had talked to Henare at the end of the Commonwealth Games about joining him in Turkey but the move was only finalised on Tuesday night.

Henare, 27, remains contracted to the Breakers for the next ANBL season, starting in September, but he will miss out on the remainder of the New Zealand National Basketball League, where he was playing for the Bay Hawks.

And some of his associates in that part of the world aren't happy with Henare's exodus.

In fact, his Hawke's Bay franchise are furious with Banvitspor and their coach, Tab Baldwin, for the manner in which their star player was spirited away from them.

"We're gutted," said team boss Jeremy Bayliss yesterday.

"It appears that Tab has stolen him from right under our nose and whisked him off to Turkey. From a personal perspective, we're delighted that Pauli has had the opportunity to further his professional basketball career but, from a team perspective, we're extremely disappointed that Tab and the Turkish club haven't been in touch with us at all.

"As the Tall Blacks' coach we thought Tab might have had the decency to let us know he was trying to recruit our number one player. In fact no-one from the club has put in any request for a player transfer and the first I heard of it was via a message on my answerphone after midnight from Pauli, to say that he'd gone.

"I've spoken to Pauli's agent today and we're quite categorical that we require some kind of compensation from the Turkish club, along the lines of the sum that Pauli had agreed to play for us for this season."

Bayliss says it appears that Henare, Baldwin, Banvitspor and Basketball New Zealand have all been in discussions for some time and he feels let down that people he regarded as friends didn't have the decency to inform him of the negotiations.

Hawks coach Shawn Dennis, who doubles as the assistant for the Tall Ferns, spent two weeks with Baldwin at the Commonwealth Games and is also disgusted with the American's behaviour.

"Like Jeremy, I'm delighted for Pauli and it just shows you how well he's playing at the moment that Tab Baldwin would recruit him to a European team as an import," said Dennis.

"But from a club point of view I'm extremely pissed off that Tab Baldwin hasn't even had the courtesy to call me. It angers me that in three years as the head coach of an NBL team that the national coach has never had the decency to give me a call and, to my way of thinking, that just shows a total lack of respect to this programme.

"I saw Tab nearly every day over in Melbourne and at no time did he mention anything about this. There we were, over there representing New Zealand and to not mention something like that to someone you have a personal relationship with is just disgusting.

"Basketball New Zealand and this league are what's given him the opportunity to be where he is in the game today and this is the way he shows his gratitude."

With the depth in this year's Hawks squad, Dennis has said many times that the players will have to fight hard for playing time. All except Henare, who as the team's point guard, was responsible for all of the offence and would've played as much as possible.

Without him, Dennis says the onus goes on Aidan Daly and Everard Bartlett to step up, while import Field Williams will also have to shoulder an increased workload.

"But, I have to say I'm still very upbeat about our chances. We've still got a very good team," he said.

Banvitspor are in fifth place in the Turkish league with a 16-9 record, but lost three games while Baldwin and Cameron were away on Commonwealth Games duty.

- NZPA, additional reporting from Hawke's Bay Today