Back Chat: New Zealand basketball star Dillon Boucher on Breakers and business – Stuff

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Dillon Boucher became the new chief executive of Basketball New Zealand last year.

Dillon Boucher has been a standout figure in New Zealand basketball for almost three decades.

The Taranaki-born 46-year-old was a founder player with the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian NBL, played for Perth and Brisbane before returning to the Auckland-based franchise to be part of their three-peat title-winning teams.

No one has played more NZ NBL games than the small forward, who made his living via his defensive skills and court smarts and was part of the Tall Blacks team which finished fourth at the 2002 world champs.

Te Kea

More than 20 basketball hoops have been donated to schools in South Auckland in a move to increase participation in the sport.Basketball New Zealand officially opened the first of these hoops, at Hmai School in Manurewa, in May 2018.

He spent three years as the Breakers general manager and became Basketball New Zealands chief executive last September.

Lets bounce some Back Chat at him.

Whats tougher being a player or an administrator?:

When youre on the court you can be fully controlling of your own abilities. Now its about being able to get everyone together and on the same page is the challenge. Off-the-court is more of a challenge, but I really love it it gives me an opportunity to grow the sport in NZ, to help the sport really flourish.

There were big expectations of the NZ Breakers when they first began, but the franchise struggled for years:

It was a real punch in the face.

We had a good team, all the things on paper looked like we could be successful in that league. But probably only half the team had been professional before we got a real fast lesson of how professional basketball in Australia was.

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Dillon Boucher, right, with Pero Cameron during the debut season of the NZ Breakers.

It took the Breakers quite a few years to work that out and how to develop a winning culture. It was really tough.

The biggest thing to remember was every failure gave the club an opportunity to see a reason why they failed. That was really important to get to the winning years.

What was the major problem?:

Back in those days, we really struggled to win away games.

We would often talk about how hard the travel was, and the more you talk about how hard it is, the more its planted in your head. So psychologically, before you even go into a game, youre not beaten already but youre already thinking that its hard.

In those years that we were successful, we made a vow as a group we would never talk about how hard it was if it was a trip to Perth, or multiple locations in Aus and double-headers, we wouldn't talk about how fatiguing travel was.

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Dillon Boucher, far right, celebrates another Breakers win during the franchise's glory years.

That mental shift was a huge factor in us becoming successful.

There were some dire times, and the club was really searching for answers on and off the court.

How did things turn around?:

When the Blackwells [Paul and Liz] became owners, the built a family culture, but also every year they tried to build another piece to the puzzle.

They werent trying to win it straight away. Every year they werent buying a team that could win it, they were building pieces.

If you got a chance to have your playing career again, would you have become a player who could shoot threes?:

My kids at the moment are deciding whether to go to college [in the US] or not.

When I came out of high school, I chose not to go to the States and I dont regret not going, but I always asked myself what player would I become had I gone.

If I was a better shooter, would all the other things I brought to the table be as good as what they were? Its probably a bad analogy but if someones blind, their other senses are heightened.

Its funny because the advice I give every kid is to be a good shooter. Its really hard to survive in todays game without being able to knock a shot down.

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Back Chat: New Zealand basketball star Dillon Boucher on Breakers and business - Stuff