Will McDowell-White is ready to return from injury. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Will McDowell-White doesn't like to talk about the "embarrassing" incident which saw him miss the start of the Australian NBL season.
After a bit of prompting he sheepishly tells the tale of how fellow Breakers guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright got the better of him on the practice court and broke his finger.
The friendly fire saw McDowell-White nursing his digit for a few weeks while American import Jackson-Cartwright showed what he could do during the Breakers opening win over the Cairns Taipans.
Not a fan of sitting on the sidelines McDowell-White was impressed by Jackson-Cartwright's stat-stuffing performance of 25 points, four rebounds, eight assists and six steals in round one "he did literally everything" but was frustrated by his own predicament.
"First two weeks, I couldn't really do anything I just had to let it rest and then after that got into some running. I only started bouncing a ball a couple days ago so haven't had a lot of basketball reps. I tend to usually play through any injury I had, I just hate sitting so it was a little annoying, but we've got a good squad."
McDowell-White was one of the standout players during the Breakers' last NBL season and one of the key parts of the roster that the club wanted to retain after making it to the championship finals series.
Parker Jackson-Cartwright of the Breakers attempts a lay-up against the Cairns Taipans. Photo: Photosport
He doesn't believe he'll be battling with Jackson-Cartwright for minutes on court this season.
"I think we'll work together pretty well. We've understood now that we're gonna play a lot together and we kind of play similar ways and getting everybody involved and just playing right way so we just bounce off each other."
McDowell-White expects to return for the Breakers second game of the season against his hometown club the Brisbane Bullets in Auckland on Thursday night.
He missed the recent Basketball World Cup after getting cut late from the Boomers squad but said he wasn't feeling the pressure to back-up his breakout season with the Breakers.
"I'm pretty confident that I'll hopefully step it up again this year.
"I've been building on what I worked on last year just improving that three ball getting that more consistent, I was 10 percent better off the dribble than spot shot which is very, very rare. So just working on that and refining everything else, it was a work in progress."
Coach Mody Maor is the reason McDowell-White turned down interest from other NBL clubs in the off-season.
"We've been together for a while now and he's one that's really developed my game and was the reason why I probably had a breakout year last year."
The 24-year-old trusts Maor's recruitment of players and assistant coaches and the intensity that he expects.
Asked what messages Maor had delivered after the opening win and what he'd asked the team to work on this week McDowell-White was clear.
"Everything. We had a very long film session [on Monday] to the point where I was yawning. So we really touched on everything that's gonna make us change a championship-level team."