There should be more writing about the NBL in the style of Jason Prijepolje’s polemic on Crawfordgate. Robust arguments are a great aspect of sport analysis and I’m all for some voracious opinion when it’s warranted. This issue has certainly … Continue reading
A community programme that sees basketball as a catalyst for social development is being expanded across New Zealand with the backing of some of the sport’s biggest supporters. The initiative, called There’s A Better Way, began in the Auckland suburb … Continue reading
It took a while for my eyes to focus inside Vector Arena on Friday night. As I entered the stadium I blinked and looked around, while my sense of reason tried to argue this was too good to be the … Continue reading
I used to be a rational person.
In observing sports fans, I would despair of their overly-emotive involvement in the secondary sport of spectating. I wondered why they feel the need to shout at the television, the referee, or anything else they could never influence; and I struggled to comprehend extreme reactions to the outcomes of games, whether favourable or unfavourable.
Then three NBL seasons ago, in 2008, I attended my first Breakers game at the North Shore Events Centre. Invited along by this blog’s creator, I watched Kirk Penney, Phill Jones and CJ Bruton lighting up the court with their individual styles of skilful basketball. The atmosphere, the spectacle, and, most importantly, the team won me over. I had become a fan.
The experience of a fan is odd, in many respects. It is partly a deliberate action: choosing to support a team and deciding to go along to games. But, as I found, there are also concomitant effects that happen involuntarily.
In time, I became the proverbial spectator: I began feeling irrationally angry at referees, players, and especially the coach. Abandoning my earlier beliefs in the absurdity of such behaviour, I was swept away by the emotion of every match.
I can recall leaving the NSEC on several occasions, smarting from a game the Breakers had just lost, and directing most of my disappointment toward coach Andrej Lemanis. Often he seemed to take players off just as they were starting to play really well, without sending them back on when they were needed desperately. Forgetting the successes of each season, I would lay most of the blame for the team’s competition exits at Lemanis’s feet, and wonder why he had not yet been replaced.
This year, at the beginning of the semifinal series, I felt some of those feelings and thoughts returning. The first loss to the Perth Wildcats was uncomfortably like déjà vu.
But then, as most of the country now knows, things got a lot better. The Breakers won the championship final, and as the confetti settled on the same court where dreams had collapsed in years past, I found my old rationality once again.
I realised the Breakers’ failures cannot be heaped solely on Lemanis’s shoulders, and neither can their victories. The other seasons I followed showcased some incredible basketball and teamwork, and it was those qualities that won me over in the first place. Lemanis had a big role in creating the many high points which preceded the painful competition exits.
But the quality for which I believe he deserves the most credit is the very one I lost in my transition to an irrational fan – constancy. The man has worked hard for years, through the good times and the bad times, and it has been obvious of late that the players respect him for this. The championship title was not simply the product of smart rotation in the playoffs – it was built over years of effort and commitment, even when the failures had hurt.
This is not to say I now consider all my earlier criticisms of Lemanis’s coaching decisions to be wrong in the light of success. Some of them, I still believe, were valid. But now I understand that in my disappointment I lost my sense of perspective.
I realise I would probably be writing very differently had the Breakers not won the title this year. That said, I hope I can retain some of the insight I have regained, and I hope that in future I am more gracious toward those with jobs I am far from qualified to do. But, in all honesty, as soon as the first tip-off ball is lobbed into the air at the NSEC next season, I suspect my irrational tendencies will take back control, and I will be, once again, the Crazed Fan. So, in my moment of civil reflection, let me say this:
Andrej, thank you. You’re alright by me.
- Blog post by Jono Hutchison (@jonohutchison).
For all the significance of the Breakers and the Taipans making their first appearances in the NBL finals, Game One last night was largely without drama. Even before tip-off, this blog’s founder and I discussed how we felt calm and almost emotionless, compared to the fervour of the semi-finals.
After a sputtering, foul-filled start to the first quarter, the Breakers took a commanding lead and never really let up. Such walkovers are often very dull, even for fans on the victorious side, but last night was a most enjoyable game for a number of reasons. For the purposes of this blog, that number is ten.
1. The Breakers didn’t ease off when they were so far ahead. They even reined in their tendency to start taking indiscriminate three-point shots, which has been the undoing of many a big lead in the past.
2. Alex Pledger stepped up. Don’t get me wrong – I love the Gary Wilkinson show and I was relieved to see him playing, but with two early fouls there was more room for the other Big Man to dominate. And how about that throw-down dunk?
3. Kirk Penney was on fire. That’s always a privilege to witness.
4. Penney was rebounding! It’s a surprise to see him appear under the basket and snatch the ball away, and he did more than his usual share last night (although he has been picking up a few rebounds lately).
5. Tom Abercrombie schooled Phill Jones. Abercrombie’s defensive play has been great the last few games, and last night provided a match-up that was enjoyable to watch.
6. Jones started lighting up again, albeit briefly. That brought back wonderful memories of his past form for the Breakers, even if this time he was shooting against them. It was too little, too late for the Taipans, but it was nostalgic to see the Reefton Kid as he used to play. It must be the magic of the NSEC, or something.
7. Dillon Boucher played aggressively and very well all-round. The whole time he looked like he was playing in Game Three and the Breakers were close to losing. No messing about, even at 20-30 points ahead.
8. Paul Henare showed some intense emotion. It may be the last time we see him play here for the Breakers, and the enduring image for me will be him roaring excitedly to the crowd.
9. Abercrombie’s four-point play. In three seasons I can’t remember seeing the Breakers get an and-one off a three-point shot (although that’s not to say for certain it hasn’t happened).
10. Just winning so convincingly. After the Wildcats series, it was nice to be able to leave the defibrillator in its bag, sit back, and smile.
By no means am I getting cocky and suggesting the trophy should be applying for its New Zealand visa just yet. There’s still a good chance the Taipans could re-charge and come out swinging at home. Nothing is decided, but Game One proved the Breakers can stay focussed and play like the title depends on it, even when the temptation is to relax or show-off.
And it was a lot of fun to watch, too.
- Blog post by Jono Hutchison (@jonohutchison).
There were many remarkable moments at the North Shore Events Centre on Wednesday night. Gary Wilkinson’s buzzer-beating and-one at the end of a lacklustre first quarter; Tom Abercrombie’s breakaway dunk where he hung on for the extra few seconds to make his point; Kevin Braswell’s huge three-pointer that was never-going-to-go-in until it went in. But undoubtedly the most talked-about incident was the brawl involving almost everyone on the court.
That the Wildcats played the game with a feral determination was unsurprising, given the humiliating loss in Game Two on their home court. The team brought their characteristically physical game to Auckland, but in the fourth quarter, their flailing – and failing – defences turned into petulant offence, as Kevin Lisch threw Wilkinson to the floor in something resembling a winning judo technique.
Wilkinson reacted by tugging Andre Brown down with him, and players from both sides piled in to join or stop the melee. Tensions had given way to tempers, but amidst the scuffling Mika Vukona gave New Zealand sport a proud moment that deserves recognition.
The man has proved himself to be an imposing figure on the court even when injured, playing with ferocity and regularly saving the Breakers with his solid rebounding skills, and blocks which leave the opposition player in no doubt about their abject failure.
On Wednesday night he looked at least an equal match as he stepped in to muscle the intemperate Brown away from Wilkinson, but when Brown lashed out with a punch to Vukona’s face (the victim described it on 3 News as more of a slap, but it certainly knocked his head backwards), it became clear who was the bigger man. Instead of retaliating or even getting visibly angry, Vukona simply returned to staring down his assailant with the same fixed and confident glare as before.
In the context of the game, the incident proved to be a huge knock to the Wildcats’ confidence, and the team never recovered from the embarrassment of having their imported player marched off the court, his ears assaulted by deafening boos and chants from the crowd.
But at the risk of apotheosising a single action, Vukona’s behaviour was, in my opinion, a proud moment for New Zealand sport, and I’m pleased it was broadcast as part of the televised match. In a country obsessed with making athletes into role models, and which then struggles to understand when players turn out to be less than heroic, Vukona provided a simple but radical example.
The moment itself was brief, but in reacting as he did, he confirmed Brown as an irascible player and certainly the lesser man in the situation.
New Zealand recently debated the issue of bullying in reaction to an Australian YouTube clip which apparently showed a young student fighting back against his schoolyard tormentor. Opinion was divided about the morality of retaliation and the appropriate response to physical abuse.
And while the fight on Wednesday night cannot be translated directly to other scenarios of bullying, few could argue that in that instance, Vukona acted anything other than courageously and admirably. New Zealand should be proud of him.
- Blog post by Jono Hutchison (@jonohutchison).
