KEY POINTS:
Basketballer Craig Bradshaw says the fear of being burdened with the saviour tag drove him from signing with the New Zealand Breakers.
Tall Blacks centre Bradshaw, 23, was the subject of a bidding war between the Breakers and rival Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) club the Brisbane Bullets.
ANBL champions the Bullets won out, but Bradshaw told The Dominion Post newspaper the decision was based on establishing himself as a professional player away from the public glare.
"For me, (in) my rookie year they (the Breakers) were offering some really, really good money and it was the same money as Brisbane was offering but the biggest thing for me was just the pressure," Bradshaw said.
"I didn't want to have my first year at the Breakers and if they didn't go too well then the public or whatever would say that I didn't perform. I just didn't want that in my first year out (of college)."
The Breakers finished 10th out of 12 teams last season and had pinned their hopes on signing Bradshaw and fellow New Zealand star Kirk Penney.
They got one from two, with Penney committing to the Auckland-based franchise for the upcoming season.
Bradshaw will play for the Atlanta Hawks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) summer league, which begins in the United States this weekend, in the hope of being offered a contract as a free agent.
He has an NBA out-clause in his two-year Bullets contract.
Bradshaw will return to New Zealand in time to join the Tall Blacks ahead of a three-match series against Venezuela, starting on July 20.
- NZPA
