Basketball: Brian Green ignites Breakers

Brian Green

Brian Green shuffles his frame forward in a seat at the Waitakere Trusts Stadium and says: "Moving to new countries is kind of easy for me. I've been doing it all my life, having to be the new kid on the block."

Some in the New Zealand Breakers wondered what they'd hooked themselves after the 31-year-old Green came to town.

Out of match conditioning, he seemed a bit grumpy on court, almost started a fight in a game. And the Auckland-based basketball team kept skidding on an 11-game losing slide to the bottom of the NBL.

From the outside at least, Green looked just like another footnote in a season that - with any luck - would be quickly forgotten.

Green wasn't exactly a flop. But the results still weren't coming, as his initial month-long stint covering for the injured Rich Melzer came to an end.

And then, hey presto. Green led the way as the Breakers tipped over Wollongong, and then repeated the dose against another mid-table team last Friday, with a 25-points scoring spree in the second half inspiring a 15-point win over Cairns.

Suddenly, there was a new man in town. Which is what Green has always been. San Antonio might be the place he calls home, but with his father a military man, the family was always shifting - Hawaii, Germany, who knows where next.

"I would always find myself competing for a new spot against a different player," he says.

"I've always had to find a way to be the leader, because I'm from Texas and we got a lot of pride down there with our basketball.

"I'd move to Kentucky, the new guy on the block, and I'd get there and show the coach, 'I'm going to be your best player'. Then I'd move to Kansas, learn how they played their basketball, and fit my talent there."

The NBA didn't prove to be a home either. The ink was hardly dry on his Phoenix Suns contract in the mid- 1990s when the NBA sun began to set on Green after a veteran named Rex Chapman arrived from Miami.

Chapman became famous for a favourite television and fans moment, saving a ball in court and landing a last-gasp three-pointer to keep a playoff game alive. These bright lights had bypassed Green, however.

"I'd signed a one-year contract, but this nine-year veteran arrived and I got released two weeks later.

"The first day he got off the plane - I'd been there four or five weeks - I got dropped from second to third team. He hadn't even started.

"Was this really how it works? That was pretty much my pink slip. The NBA is pretty much a fraternity and you have to get in somehow."

So Green has kept on the move, although he trains with the NBA champion Spurs in summer and still hopes for another NBA chance.

"It's not like they're calling every guy in San Antonio to come in and work out," he says. But Green's CV includes stints in Spain, Cyprus, China, Bosnia and the Philippines.

The memories range from the mediocre to the spectacular.

"Bosnia was nice and the people are cool, but the only sad thing is they are still depressed over the war with Serbia 10 years ago.

"That is instilled into the kids, the adults. No matter what, you're going to have to hear a war story from somebody every day."

He'd prefer to talk about the Philippines, where life and the pay was good.

"Let me tell you the best thing about the Philippines," he says.

"In the middle of the game, when they call time out, you get on the bench and there are two or three trainers behind you.

"They give you a towel, your water, then massage you. You're just sitting there and they give you a shoulder massage, rub your calves. I used to look forward to the times out. 'Hey coach, can we have a time out?' That is the only place that happens.

"And they give you a driver. I never drove a day of my life in the Philippines. That's your guy. I used to tell my guy, 'Hey, I probably won't be getting up before 9 o'clock'. He says: 'I'll be here at 8.30, just waiting'."

It was San Antonio assistant coach Brett Brown, a longtime coach in the Australian league, who recommended to Breakers' boss Andrej Lemanis that they hire Green to cover for Melzer.

Apart from mixing with the Spurs' Sean Marks, Green knew next to nothing about New Zealand, but was inquisitive about the Australasian league.

Green owns a "small entity" sports clothing label - Play To Score - with his "acquaintances" including rapper Snoop Dog, the sort of contact he hopes might make the label big one day.

But a man who loves meeting new people had little trouble in deciding to take on another basketball assignment, this time in Auckland.

And when the Breakers confirmed their two imports last week, it was Brant Bailey who made way for the newcomer.

You only have to hear Green detail the scenarios allowing the Breakers to somehow make the top-eight playoffs to know he is no accidental tourist. From arrival, Green was not backwards in coming forwards at meetings.

Whereas the Breakers aimed to limit opponents to 25 points or or fewer per quarter, Green pointed out a 20-point mark was in order since they were averaging only 96 points a game.

"Just little things like that," he says. I've changed a few things, but I don't take credit. That's the coaches.

"I've put my 10 cents in and some people agree and other don't. But I think my contribution at meetings is a reason they have kept me.

"And it's about having a little passion and attitude on court. When you lose a lot of games, you focus on the negative too much.

"Do what you do well. If you shoot the ball, do that. If you play defence, do that. If you post up and shoot jump hooks, do that. If everyone plays their role, things fall into place.

"I play with a lot of passion and I think the Breakers appreciate the emotion I bring to the game. I feel I have brought to the table a little professionalism and attitude, what it takes in games to get over that hump.

"I recognised very early that with the talent we have - Paul Henare, Ben Pepper, Aaron Olsen and those kind of guys - this is not last-placed material. There was a problem somewhere which we just had to resolve."

Green wants to settle down in one place for his final few seasons. If events of the past week continue, Auckland might just offer this basketball nomad more of a home.