Penney receives illustrious honour

Breakers legend Kirk Penney has been named to international basketball’s highest echelon, with a place in the FIBA Hall of Fame for his services to New Zealand basketball.

Penney’s globetrotting club career took him to the NBA with the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers, where he was the second New Zealander ever to play in the competition, and a myriad of high-level European competition including Turkey, Lithuania and Spain.

He represented the Tall Blacks for their Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic campaigns, and was a crucial member of the 2002 World Championship team that earned a fourth-place finish in the competition in 2002.

He is currently the all-time leading scorer for the national team, and represented his country at senior level for 15 years.

Penney joined the Breakers for his first stint in the NBL in 2007 for the team’s fifth season in the competition, and he proved to be a catalyst for a turn in fortunes for the franchise.

He was named to the All-NBL First Team in his first season with the club, and the 2008-2009 season saw him become the first – and to date, only – New Zealander to be named the NBL MVP as he led the side to a third-place finish.

Penney then led the Breakers to their first NBL championship in 2011, before a return to Europe beckoned with stints in Spain and Turkey.

He returned to the NBL with the Illawarra Hawks in NBL16, before heading back to the Breakers and retiring in 2018.

The full 2024 FIBA Hall of Fame class includes:
Kirk Penney (New Zealand)
Reggie Miller (USA)
Predrag Stojakovic (Serbia)
Miao Lijie (China)
Danira Nakic-Bilic (Croatia)
Romain Sato (Central African Republic)
Skaidrite Smildzina-Budovska (Latvia)
Daniel Lowell Peterson (USA, coach)

NBL honour roll
1x NBL champion (2011)
1x NBL MVP (2009)
4x All-NBL First Team (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
1x All-NBL Second Team (2016)
3x NBL scoring champion (2009, 2010, 2011)