Breaking In

I never knew a game called basketball existed in New Zealand until I started as a Year 9 student at Wellington College. By that time I was twelve-years-old, as were the kids I grew up with at primary and intermediate schools.

Other kids from other schools that took an interest in basketball also weren’t exposed to the game. So for the group of Year 9 students that year, (as were our predecessors and successors) we found ourselves behind the international ‘standard’ of kids our age around the world. In Australia, Europe and the U.S.A. kids begin basketball at five or six years of age.

As we progressed through our college years, our basketball abilities improved markedly and we began to take it more seriously. But because we picked the game up at such a late age, we believed that we could never compete against other kids around the world and submitted defeat. We thought, because we don’t have the coaches, facilities, money, population, programmes etc, we are inferior to those kids around the world playing basketball, and we should accept it and ‘idolise’ them (become fans).

From 1980-86, there was a group of kids who created an intense passion for a game we practiced every single day.

A group from St. Pats, Wellington and Rongotai Colleges, would meet everyday at Newtown Stadium, hoping it would be open. If it was being used, we’d go in search for a gym that was open, and we wouldn’t stop until we found one. Most of the time we would have to break into the premises. We had to illegally break into a building just to play basketball. We understood about respecting the gym. If we looked after it, we could continue to use it. By then we’d have broken into about seven or eight different places. As I was the smallest member of the group, I was the one being shoved into small holes and gaps to get into the gym and open it up.

Kenny McFadden arrived in New Zealand and saw that basketball was almost non-existent here. The game was beginning to grow but was still considerably below international standard. He joined us in a hunt for a gym one day, and when we found one and began to break in, he began protesting as he didn’t want to get in trouble with the law. We assured him it was okay and that we do it all the time.

Kenny would have freaked out that we have to break into gyms just to play basketball. Where he grew up basketball was everywhere. Once we got inside he would have freaked out once more when he saw a group of kids who have only been playing one or two years and they not only knew how to break into a building to play sport, but they knew how to organise themselves into teams and play team basketball with strategies and tactics. Kenny witnessed that we played at a surprisingly high level of skill, emotion (intensity) and competitiveness (passion). He was able to join us and get a decent work out.

This wouldn’t have made sense as to how quickly we learned the game! The top players in our group picked up the game far easier (naturally) than most kids do in America.

The beauty of what I was a part of, was the purity of our passion. We were lucky we had a good coach who was knowledgeable about the game, and guided us the right way. We had great passion and competitiveness within ourselves. This enabled us to learn the game at a high level.

When we believed that we couldn’t compete against other kids around the world, the top players who were leading my group were actually on par with their international cohorts. When we were watching imports playing in the National Basketball League, we believed we could never reach their levels and compete with them. The truth was, we were as good if not better.

Sometimes when you have nothing, you have everything and sometimes when you think you have everything, you have nothing.

Kids spend thousands of hours developing their basketball skills and if they don’t reach the levels they aspire to, they walk away from the game and never realise the potential they have with those skills.

Gyms we broke into.

Newtown stadium, Wellington College Old Boys gym, Rongotai College, The Athletic gym, The Hospital gym, Saint Patrick College gym, Tauranga College, just to play basketball.