Basketball: Back in black for new look Breakers

Back in black is the catch cry of the new Breakers ownership group but it is more than a return to the traditional colour of the uniform that they want to reinstate.

Family and community are crucial to the vision of majority owner Marc Mitchell, as well as minority owners Leon and Stephen Grice, Sean Colgan and Paul and Liz Blackwell. This is backed up by former championship-winning players Tom Abercrombie and Dillon Boucher who have rejoined the club in off-court roles.

Mitchell, who has come to New Zealand via Los Angeles, lives not too far from the Breakers' North Shore headquarters that he has now purchased and he believes basketball should have a home in Auckland.

"We've seen such growth in the NBL over the last few years and I think it's really important that New Zealand is a part of that," Mitchell said.

"The sport of basketball in New Zealand, we all need to work together. We need to work together to make sure that we're presenting the best opportunities for our youth.

"The sport is growing tremendously, but we need to make sure that they have the right opportunities to take their passion and do something with it. That can be on the court, that can be opening doors in education. It is a very powerful sport and we're the ones who need to lead that.

"There's an opportunity to really grow our efforts around grassroots, around academy, around Junior Breakers to get kids into the game so they can really understand the power of this sport and all the doors that they can open."

The New Zealand influence will also be felt on the NBL court as free agency opens this week for the 2025/26 season.

"There's a superpower, the amount of talent that's here and the people who want to come back to New Zealand to represent their country. So we are going to get back to a strong Kiwi core and making sure that New Zealand is well represented on our team.

"You want players who understand about winning and winning culture, but also understand that there is work to be done outside of practice and outside of games, really connecting with our youth and with our community."

That approach sits well with the Blackwells.

The former owners sold up in 2018 and "never expected" they would be back with the club.

"We loved [Mitchell's] vision and what he wanted to bring back to the club ... also that he wanted to bring back the Kiwi players, which meant a lot to us. We couldn't say no," Liz Blackwell said.

Liz remembered the impact that former coaches at the club, New Zealanders Mike Fitchett, Judd Flavell and Hayden Allen, had on the junior and academy programmes that the Blackwell ownership had pioneered but had since lapsed.

"To be able to do that again means a lot to Paul and I".

The Blackwells had worked hard to make the Breakers' brand stand for family during their 13 years with the club.

"I think that's been lost a little along the way and the ex-players have contacted us and congratulated us [on returning] and we were thrilled about it because they were the recipients and they saw it and they believe in it and they can't wait for it to happen again," Paul said.

"I'm stepping in as a director of the Breakers, but we are there to help them re-establish.

"They see that the success of four championships came from a period of building the base, growing the people, and bedding down the culture and we are here to help them restart to get that.

"We've been available always, but Marc's called us and said, would we help? And we've taken a share in the business and we're definitely committed to helping to be their best."

Leon Grice is new to sports team ownership but his family - sister and nephew in particular - are mad about basketball.

"I feel very exposed in terms of the responsibility we're taking on and running a professional sports team as you can just see is not an easy thing, but I think we'll build it from solid foundation," Grice said.

"I think we've got to do those really basic things [around team values] and then we will have the strength to be able to cope all of the things that happen to professional sports teams, which are the highs and the low. So I think if we build this business and this movement with the right principles, we'll be fine."

Grice is not expecting the NBL club to be a money-maker like his other ventures.

"It's not a business that's going to pay a dividend and these businesses never are. It's very different to the other businesses that Stephen and I have built and Sean have built.

"Our focus is growing the revenue and ploughing it back into the team, ploughing it back into building the fans, making sure that the players get everything they need to be successful on the court.

"So, the cycle of owning a sports team is just reinvestment. There's no cash benefits in the short term, but what happens is if the league goes well and we think the league is worth buying into, we went into that with very open eyes of where the league's at and where it's going, what we see is the capital value of the team will grow over time.

"The stronger the capital value, the better you'll do on court, the better the fans will love you. These things are either a virtuous circle or a vicious circle."

Coach Petteri Koponen will guide the Breakers again next season and even though the owners are leaving the player recruitment to Boucher, Grice said Koponen was key to getting the club ready for a season that will tip off in about six months time.

"It was a difficult season last year, but they kept playing for him right to the end so that sent a signal that he's a good coach."

Alongside the playing roster the club also needed to secure front office staff over the coming months.

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