{"id":510541,"date":"2026-02-28T22:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510541\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T22:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:15:08","slug":"coach-koponen-calls-time-on-breakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510541\/","title":{"rendered":"Coach Koponen calls time on Breakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Petteri Koponen has left the New Zealand Breakers just days after they were crowned champions of the NBL’s inaugural in-season tournament.<\/p>\n

Koponen leaves the Kiwi club on good terms, opting against seeking a contract extension in order to pursue opportunities closer to home in Finland.<\/p>\n

Petteri Koponen and the Breakers have parted ways.\u00a0(Photo by Fiona Goodall\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old is also understood to be eager for the chance to be closer to family.<\/p>\n

Koponen’s wife and children did not relocate to Auckland when he succeeded Mody Maor as coach for the 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n

The Breakers will undertake a global search for their next coach after two campaigns missing the post-season.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Injuries cruelled Koponen’s first season at the helm before the Breakers narrowly missed the playoffs in his second campaign, placing seventh this year.<\/p>\n

Koponen will be remembered for helping the Breakers to win the inaugural Ignite Cup, the NBL’s in-season tournament, which came with a $300,000 bonus for the club.<\/p>\n

The Breakers defeated heavyweights Adelaide in last Sunday’s cup final on the Gold Coast to clinch silverware for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n

Koponen has also been instrumental in the development of NBL Next Star Karim Lopez, rated a future top-10 NBA draft pick.<\/p>\n

“My time in New Zealand has been one of the most rewarding chapters of my career. I fell in love with this country and the incredible community that supports the Breakers,” Koponen said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“However, after two seasons of intense growth in the NBL, and the immense satisfaction of bringing the Ignite Cup to Auckland, I am ready for a new challenge. “I am proud of the culture we’ve built, and I leave with the highest respect for this club.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Petteri Koponen has left the New Zealand Breakers just days after they were crowned champions of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-510541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}