Breakers' Star Ignores Australia and Recommits to New Zealand

The sound of a ballpoint pen to paper makes barely a sound, but the noise generated by Will McDowell-White re-signing with the Sky Sport Breakers will reverberate across all basketball channels in Australia and New Zealand.

 

The off-contract Australian Boomer, the marque option for every NBL club this off-season, has turned his back on all nine clubs in his homeland and ignored the Aussie pundits urging him to return home, instead signing a two-year deal with the Breakers with a second-year player option.

 

"Keeping Will in a Breakers shirt for another couple of seasons was our biggest goal this off-season," says Head Coach Mody Maor.

 

"He was a scorching hot commodity in the open market with several suitors and many great teams in the league willing to fork out a lot of cash for Will's services.

 

"However, the Breakers have been instrumental in turning him into the player he has become.  I had my fingers crossed he would come back."

 

McDowell-White's new contract is a strong statement to every top Australian basketballer off-contract during free agency, that New Zealand is a destination for all the top players in the league.

 

"I think it sends an unambiguous message to every good young emerging player in the NBL that the Breakers is the place to be if you want to improve, grow, and reach your goals," says Maor.

 

"I can understand the complexity of an Australian leaving his country and moving to New Zealand.  It makes sense to stay close to home where you feel comfortable.

 

"But there's added value coming to the Breakers; you might pay the price of leaving your home and travelling across the ditch, but you are rewarded by playing in the best environment in the league where your game grows."

 

McDowell-White, who turns 25 on Thursday, joined the Breakers two years ago during the first of the club's two COVID seasons, locked out of New Zealand. 

 

The club was bottom of the table, with no guarantee of any home games.  He was replacing star import Lamar Patterson who was hugely disappointing and was being released, and injured Corey Webster.  

 

McDowell-White also had to fly from his base in Houston to suffer two weeks solitary confinement quarantined in an Australian hotel before joining his new Breaker teammates.

 

Despite the circumstances, he hinted at his potential in just his fourth game, becoming just the second Breaker after Cedric Jackson to achieve a triple-double, and he did it in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

 

It was a "home" game in Launceston against the club he supported in his youth, the Brisbane Bullets, who ironically had picked up Patterson.  He was returning to play against McDowell-White, the player who had taken his place.

 

There is little doubt the adversity experienced by McDowell-White for the Breakers in two COVID seasons locked out of New Zealand was character-building, contributing to his just-completed NBL23 season in which he played a starring role in the greatest Championship Series ever played. 

 

Ironically, McDowell-White began his professional career with the Kings in 2016 before having two seasons in Germany.  After spending the next two seasons with the Houston Rockets' NBA G-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, he joined the Breakers.

 

With 12 spots available on the Breakers' NBL24 roster, McDowell-White is the fifth player after Izayah Le'Afa, Tom Vodanovich, Cameron Gliddon, and Dan Fotu confirmed for next season.

 

A sixth player should be confirmed later this week, while the club is also in advanced talks to bring another NBA-bound Next Star sensation to Auckland.

 

Season tickets go on sale next month, with the Breakers’ first home game at Spark likely scheduled for late September.