The New Zealand Breakers have their eyes on the Australian National Basketball League trophy this season and club owner Matt Walsh is so confident that they have the roster to do it that the club is prepared to be based overseas for an undetermined length of time.
Breakers captain Tom Abercrombie. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Auckland based club head to Australia next month to prepare for the season which is expected to start on January 15
The season was expected to start last month but has twice been postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"December 1st we'll be leaving for Australia, we don't know when we'll be home, it's not going to be easy on our guys but our staff and our players number one goal this year is to win a championship and if that means we are in Australia for the next five or six months that's what we are going to do," Walsh said.
No location of where the team will be based when they arrive across the Tasman has been confirmed, but Walsh said it would be a state that did not require the team to quarantine.
The early December arrival is to give the team time to acclimatise the new players including American imports Colton Iverson and Lamar Patterson and to get in six or seven pre-season games.
"We believe that if we have that and we have a normal runway into a season we're going to win a championship."
The players would be away from home for Christmas and Walsh said all players - including the fathers in the organisation - were on board.
Breakers owner Matt Walsh, right, is one of the fathers in the organisation. Photo: Photosport
Walsh said no players would be "forced" to play and contingencies were in place for forward Rob Loe who is expecting the birth of his first child in early January.
"That's not a hindrance, it's something we have to work around and it's very positive news," Walsh said of Loe's impending fatherhood.
How to get the other families to Australia were also being considered.
"We're doing everything we can to make it the best situation for our players, one of the things we're working through now is exactly what the schedule is going to look like, if it means we are just on the road bouncing around for the first three months or if we're going to have a 'home' for them, that stuff we are working through with the league.
Rob Loe will become a father in January. Photo: Photosport
"This is not going to be an easy season, no matter what but we're going to do everything we can for our players to make sure physically, mentally that we put them in the best position possible."
The Breakers have no return date locked in and Walsh said home games would only be possible if the border situation changed and they played all their home games in the latter stages of the season.
"If we're going to have to quarantine and teams are going to have to quarantine coming back we're very likely looking at a season - all 28 games - in Australia."
Without home games the club would take a financial hit, but Walsh said the entire ANBL was committed to getting through the season.
"It's going to be a joint effort this isn't something being the Kiwi team we can do on our own, it's certainly a joint effort with the NBL."