Basketball: Breakers not only home for Tall Blacks in ANBL

NZ Breakers have focused on bringing New Zealand players home for the 2025/26 Australian NBL season, with nine Tall Blacks on their roster, but local talent has also found a place in Australian sides.

In the off-season, the new Breakers owners laid out the recruitment plans.

"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 make sure that New Zealand is well represented on our team," owner Marc Mitchell said, soon after he took control of the club.

Before the opening game of the season, coach Petteri Koponen, from Finland, also spoke of the value of the New Zealand players, including new co-captain and Tall Blacks veteran Reuben Te Rangi.

"I think every league in the world, the locals set the tone," Koponen said. "You have high-character guys, who can keep guys accountable."

While the Breakers have taken Te Rangi (Tasmania JackJumpers), Rob Loe (Melbourne United) and Izayah Le'Afa (Sydney Kings) away from other clubs, 10 other Tall Blacks will play for the opposition in the NBL this season.

On Friday in Auckland, the Breakers' season-opener pits them against the club with the second-most New Zealanders on the roster...

Brisbane Bullets

The Bullets added guard Taine Murray to the roster for 2025/26 season, when he joins fellow Tall Blacks forward Tohi Smith-Milner and centre Tyrell Harrison.

This is Murray's first full NBL contract, after playing four years of US college basketball for University of Virginia. Before college, he had after a stint as a Breakers development player.

Smith-Milner has bounced around the NBL, since first joining the league with Melbourne United in the 2016/17 season. After four seasons with United, he moved to South East Melbourne Phoenix for a season and the 36ers for a season.

This will be his second season with the Bullets.

Harrison enters his eighth NBL season - all played with the Bullets - and comes off a breakout season that saw him pick up the NBL Most Improved Player honours.

He also spent some time in the off-season chasing his NBA dream, playing Summer League with Denver Nuggets.

Adelaide 36ers

Guard Flynn Cameron first joined the NBL in the 2023/24 season with Melbourne United and, after two seasons there, he has moved to the 36ers in the off-season.

Cameron's shift to South Australia came after conversations with recently retired 36er Jason Cadee, who played with Cameron's dad, Pero, when the now defunct Gold Coast Blaze was in the NBL.

The 36ers signed last season's Most Valuable Player, Bryce Cotton, an American who just obtained Australian citizenship, in the off-season and are tipped as one of the top teams in the competition this season.

Cairns Taipans

Forward Sam Waardenburg's fourth season with the Taipans will have a delayed start - ankle surgery this week will see him miss the early rounds.

Waardenburg, 26, was one of the Taipan's best players last season, averaging 14.5 points and 6.4 rebounds a game on a team that finished last in the standings.

Illawarra Hawks

Centre Luca Yates was an NBL champion with the Hawks last season and returns for a third season in Wollongong as a development player.

Yates has had limited minutes in his NBL career so far and sits behind two Hawks newcomers - three-time NBA champion JaVale McGee and Harry Froling, who is returning to the NBL and the Hawks, after a life-threatening head injury in 2023.

The Hawks have also signed NZ teenage talent Jackson Ball as a development player.

After finishing his school year in Napier, the guard will play his first season of NBL, before joining US college team Wisconsin Badgers next year.

Melbourne United

Tall Blacks guard Shea Ili, 32, started his NBL career with the Breakers, playing four seasons with the Auckland club, before moving to United in 2019/20.

Ili's sixth season with United comes has seen him cleared of long-term concussion symptoms, which have impacted on his availability since 2022.

While United have seen two New Zealanders leave, the 2024/25 season runners-up have added forward Finn Delany.

Delany played six seasons with the Breakers and left at the end of 2023/24 season. He returns to the NBL after stints in Spain and Japan.

Perth Wildcats

Guard Dontae Russo-Nance has already had two seasons with the Wildcats and has struggled for court-time.

He played in 10 games last season, as the Wildcats finished third on the ladder.

Russo-Nance, 20, is the last remaining New Zealander with the Wildcats, after Hyrum Harris and Tai Webster left during the off-season.

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