Shamir Ready to Win After COVID Fight

Monday, December 6, 2021

Add a bout of COVID-19 to the laundry list of challenges New Zealand Breakers coach Dan Shamir has had to deal with over the past two years.

Shamir opened up about the illness while speaking on Sunday’s episode of The Crossover, conceding his battle with COVID-19 was “really weird” and “worrisome”.

The Breakers were without their coach for 10 days, including Saturday’s season opener against South East Melbourne, with Shamir saying it was the first practice or game he has missed in his career.

Adding insult to injury was the result, with New Zealand falling to the Phoenix by 24 points.

However, Shamir is ready to learn from the loss and put the toughest challenge the team has dealt with behind them.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Crossover presented by <a href="https://twitter.com/AAMI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AAMI</a> ?<a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> head coach Dan Shamir joins the show to provide an update on his recovery after testing positive for COVID and discussing his team's start to the season.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> <a href="https://t.co/kCnmrJzSMY">pic.twitter.com/kCnmrJzSMY</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1467376204923629571?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“These two weeks have been the toughest because I was not with the team, and we had players with COVID, and we had the team isolating for a long time,” Shamir said.

“This has probably been the toughest of all the challenges that we've been through. And still, we believe, I believe.

“I think that we have the conditions to play good basketball and that we have the right combination of players.

“It (was) a serious punch to the face (on Saturday) and we have to move on, and we have to get better.

“Hopefully this week will look differently, and we won't need to talk about all the million sets of circumstances…just being able to talk about playing good basketball and winning games.”

Shamir returned to his coaching duties at New Zealand practice today.

The Breakers will seek revenge against the Phoenix on Friday night. The game will begin at 7:30pm AEDT at John Cain Arena and will be broadcast on ESPN via Kayo and Foxtel.