Rob Loe helped the Breakers advance to the finals last season. Photo / Getty
It was a bolt from the blue.
Tall Blacks veteran Rob Loe helped the Breakers into the ANBL final, seemed to have his third World Cup appearance to look forward to, and is dominating the national league with the Auckland Tuatara.
But at the relatively young age of 31, the 2.11m centre shocked the sport by terminating both his Australian NBL and international career.
And unlike filmdom’s Terminator, Loe says he won’t be back.
Loe has had a typically eclectic basketball career that will end in the relative obscurity of our national league.
He has rubbed shoulders with and played against basketball legends such as Steph Curry, and even came up against a rising Nikola Jokic while playing club basketball in Europe.
Loe, who rose out of Westlake Boys High to become a Breakers academy original, gained an IT degree while playing in America and is now setting up an online, sports-related business.
He chats to the Herald about his career, strained Breakers relationships and other reasons for his retirement decision, life in America, his horror injury, beating the Aussies as a teenager, and more.
Your retirement at 31 has shocked people in basketball - some say ‘he’ll be back’.
I won’t be back - don’t worry. I’m set on this. I’ll keep playing in the New Zealand league until the body gives up. But I’m done with full-time travelling, four days a week.
We had a new child when Covid was in full swing and I had to leave five days after he was born to play in Australia. Last year we relocated to Aussie for six months - so stability at home is more important to me now.
Sources say you weren’t happy with the new contract the Breakers offered you?
It didn’t help the cause but that wasn’t the be-all and end-all of the decision. Sport is a great job, but it does provide some difficulties, like living out of a suitcase. It isn’t ideal for a lot of people, especially with a young family.
Your decision to leave the Breakers in Australia during the Covid exile strained some of your relationships within the team - did that play a part?
Yeah, I think so. All those things help weigh you down. As far as the strained relationships, I made the right call for my family.
It’s never easy abandoning a team. I had a lot of friends, and they were all going through their struggles away from families, living in a hotel, which wasn’t a great situation for anyone. And I try to be a good teammate at all times.
But I think any father or mother would have done the same thing in the circumstances.
My wife Kelly had postpartum depression. She is American and had no support here - she couldn’t fly her family over because of Covid and my family lives in Nelson.
She had a C-section and wasn’t even supposed to be carrying things up stairs, and we have stairs. All these things build up.
I spent one night at home with her then had to go into camp after the birth. It was just really tough.
Your pro career really started at the Breakers…
Yes, thanks to Paul and Liz [Blackwell, the former Breakers owners] who started an academy, and I was in the first group that went through. I was there for four years, all through high school.
That professional environment helped a lot of us grow our careers and see a world of professional sports you wouldn’t always get to see.
You were also in the Golden State Warriors 2014 summer league team, at the start of Steve Kerr’s great NBA coaching career.
I’d like to think I was part of their NBA championship success (laughs).
The step up from New Zealand to the NBA is huge. The amount of money poured in…we had a rebounder for every person shooting in practice. You never had to go and get your own ball, or rebound for a teammate unless you wanted to.
Steve Kerr had just started and wanted to coach the Summer League team, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes were around and trained with us.
But what I really remember is a conversation I had with Ron Adams, an assistant coach who is still on the staff, about little nuances to my game that I could work on. All these little interactions with coaches over the years - you take these snippets of information and try to get better.
There must have been a lot of snippets to soak up in college basketball?
I had a really good time at college - Saint Louis University, where the coach was Rick Majerus, one of the all-time greats, but he passed away after I had been there for two years.
He was known for being crazy - he just made you run a lot. He’d never had a losing season until my first year although we had three really good years after that.
He could comment on every tiny detail. Your foot might be just an inch out on defence and you would have to go and do a sprint. Coming from New Zealand, it was a bit of a shock, but something that I needed to learn. You are taught those things here but not to the same level of detail he taught them.
Share some memories of March Madness, the world-famous NCAA tournament?
Crazy levels - the money spent on it, flying charter plans and having police escorts. You use that energy in games.
The media is big over there. I enjoyed it, although I didn’t like the interviews after defeats so much. It’s cool getting on TV, playing in front of millions of people.
You had an extraordinary start to your Tall Blacks career as a 17-year-old experiencing victory over Australia in 2009…
That was amazing. We went on a two-month tour through Europe that year - I don’t think school was very happy with me.
It was awesome, rubbing shoulders with the greats and putting on that black singlet. Beating Australia was the cherry on top.
It came in a two-game series - we’d lost the first one by quite a bit. It was quite close at halftime and we came out with a lob play for Tom Abercrombie in the second half that gave us some energy. We had a great team that year.
One thing I remember is Nate Jawai squaring me in the back. I’d elbowed one of their players and he told Nate to get me back. He’s a big human - I definitely felt it. I was still a schoolboy. He was in the NBA at the time.
New Zealand only had two wins over Australia at the time, but I feel [beating Australia] is something we should be doing every year. Unfortunately, we don’t have a series anymore, but we go toe-to-toe with the best in the world these days, a testament to the growth of basketball.
Any favourite memories of playing club basketball in Europe?
Greece was certainly different. The fans are a bit crazy there. They were still allowed to smoke in some European stadiums in my time - there would be a haze above the court, with singing, drums and all those things. Fans are loud everywhere in the world. We are building vocal crowds at the Breakers and it’s awesome to play in front of that.
What stands out from your two World Cups with the Tall Blacks?
Each is special. In the first we continued the tradition of matching up against the best in the world, even against the USA who beat us by quite a bit. We never felt out of our depth and they had Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, quite a good team.
The last World Cup in China was awesome, where we put on a new style of basketball under Paulie [Henare] and Ross McMains. Every player felt empowered by that. It was fast-paced, in your face. There are some great minds in our basketball who can change the game depending on personnel and Ross McMains is a perfect example.
Has coach Pero Cameron tried to twist your arm, to stay for this year’s World Cup in Asia?
The culture of the Tall Blacks is such a huge driving force that if someone is not fully engaged, it would only take away from the team.
We’ve had chats but my mind was made up. Reuben Te Rangi asks me every day at [Tuatara] practice: “Surely you can come for one more?” I just say “nah”.
What is your NZ Breakers highlight?
Coming back to play in my first year, after a knee injury in Belgium. It was so refreshing playing in front of friends I’d grown up with and family. The club has won five championships - I didn’t win any of them, which is a little bit frustrating.
What about the state of basketball in this country?
The club is starting to capitalise on the growth of the game which is now among the highest participation sports, as it should be.
Basketball is a fun sport where everyone on the team is doing something at the same time.
The Breakers are a great professional team to watch, to take your family to, it’s action-packed.
I’d like to see more media coverage, TV rights and things like that, and more gyms in New Zealand - there is a distinct lack of indoor courts.
The talent coming through is way better than I was. It’s only a matter of time before we have five, six, seven guys in the NBA.
Steven Adams has had an amazing NBA career and Sean Marks and Kirk Penney have been in that league. But we’re only touching the surface of it.
There’s a lot of concern and talk about concussion in sport - basketball doesn’t really have that problem.
Actually, yes there is…I’ve had a few concussions, and broke my skull one year, from an elbow to the head playing Illawarra in Auckland. I was out for two months and I’ve got a little dent in my skull. It was pretty scary, and probably scarier for my wife while we were waiting for the scans.
I’ve had a few, from training and games. Hopefully there are no lasting effects.
But it’s not like rugby or league - it’s not a hurt-yourself kind of sport. It only happens every so often.
Back to Steven Adams…if only he had played for New Zealand.
We’d love to see him put on the singlet. The players have talked about it but I don’t think we were ever mad at him. Unfortunately, basketball is a business at that level, and he’s got to look after his business.
All the best with your new business Rob, and fans can still get to see you play in the national league.
It’s fun basketball, and we don’t go on the road for days on end. We’ve got a bunch of high school players on our team and their youthful spirit rubs off.
They ask questions and I’m always happy to talk to anyone who wants to learn, but you kind of make your own road as a professional.
Basketball has 61% more players at the school level since 2000.