Breakers Captain Ready to Go Around Again

New Zealand captain and Breakers legend Tom Abercrombie has all but confirmed he’ll be going around again in NBL24.

Speaking on The Brad & Boti Basketball Podcast, the 35-year-old put pay to burgeoning rumours that he was ready to hang up the boots after an illustrious 399-game NBL career.

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“I haven’t signed anything yet, but we’ve agreed to terms and things,” Abercrombie said of his contract talks with New Zealand. “We’re still figuring out the details.

“The plan at the moment is to come back for another year, for sure.”

Across his 15 seasons for the Breakers Abercrombie has experienced the highs of all four of the side’s championships in the 2010s, and the lows of the Covid-19 impacted seasons of NBL21 and NBL22.

During his tenure he’s become the club’s all-time leading scorer, appearance maker, and three-point scorer.

After a remarkable season in which the Breakers pushed the now back-to-back champion Sydney Kings to the last possible game of the season, he believes Mody Maor and the rest of the group are ready to ensure NBL23 was not just a flash in the pan.

“If you look at is as a win/loss thing after a game, after a win you want to take that confidence into the next one and not become too complacent,” he reflected.

“You learn a lot more from your losses than you do from your wins, but we want to absolutely take through the confidence we gained from this year and the belief and the way we can play can be successful in this league.

“We can’t for one second think because we had a successful season last year that’s going to transfer into this year. So many things change.

“Mody’s not going to let any complacency seep in – it’s just the way he is. He’s a tough guy who demands a lot so I think if he sees any of that it will be nipped in the bud pretty quickly.”

Although he’s now one of the older heads in the league, it was in the Breakers’ heyday that Abercrombie was one of the most incredible athletes of the modern NBL era.

After winning the Larry Sengstock Medal in 2011, and earning his sole All-NBL First Team selection in 2012, the potential for Abercrombie to end up in the NBA had never been higher.

He says while the opportunity to potentially make the leap was there for the taking, an ill-timed injury put pay to his NBA dreams.

“I had some really good offers – I can’t remember what year it was – but I hurt my ankle in Game 2 of the semi-finals when Peter Crawford took me out right at the end of the game,” he said.

“I ended up going on and getting a few jabs and playing the Grand Final Series, but I had to have surgery at the end of the season.

“I had a really good opportunity with Boston in the Summer League and I had some workouts lined up. That was a good opportunity to go and do it but I had to put those plans on ice with the injury.

“That injury took a long time to get right from, I could play on it but mentally it took a while to come right. I did go back and do some workouts for teams, I played Summer League for Phoenix, but the timing wasn’t quite right then.

“I’ve always been someone who’s thrived in the comforts of home, and it’s a tough, tough environment to go and make it over there. I certainly feel like I could have done it but I have no regrets.”