Current Tall Blacks head coach Judd Flavell is very familiar with the NBL, after 17 seasons in assistant roles.
Flavell spent 13 seasons with the Breakers, followed by three seasons with South East Melbourne Phoenix, before rejoining the Breakers coaching staff at the start of the 2025/26 season.
Aaron Young is another who has worked with national age-group teams and is a current Perth Wildcats assistant coach.
His first role in the NBL in 2014 was as the Breakers’ video co-ordinator, before going on to coaching roles in New Zealand.
Flavell and Young have both worked closely with up-and-coming local talent, as well as some of the NBL’s biggest stars during their time in the league.
Short-lived stint
The Breakers owners, who took control in March last year, have backed bringing New Zealand talent back to the club, on and off the court, but having a local coach has not ended well in the past.
The club’s inaugural coach in 2003, Jeff Green, lasted just two months before resigning.
Paul Henare left the New Zealand Breakers after the 2017-18 season. Photo / Photosport
Former Tall Black and Breakers captain Paul Henare coached the team for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons then left in murky circumstances, when he turned down a contract extension, following an ownership change.
In the last seven seasons, the Breakers have had three different head coaches, but none had worked in the NBL before arriving in Auckland.
Koponen spent two seasons with the Breakers in his first professional head-coaching gig. He was signed at short notice when Israeli-American Mody Maor quit during the 2024/25 pre-season for a big-money contract coaching in Japan.
Maor had stepped up from an assistant role to coach the team in the 2022/23 season, following a three-season stint by Israeli Dan Shamir.
The Breakers’ longest-serving coach, Australian Andrej Lemanis, was in the role for eight seasons from 2005 and won three championships.
Americans, Australians and the Finn
Across the NBL, which enters the post-season this week, seven of the 10 head coaches this season were not born in Australia.
Other than Koponen, the remaining six were born in America.
Breakers guard Karim Lopez during the New Zealand Breakers v Tasmania JackJumpers NBL clash at Spark Arena. Photo / Photosport
However, Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian has been involved with Australian basketball since the late 1970s, and Brisbane Bullets interim coach Darryl McDonald has been a player and then coach since the mid-1990s, so could be considered Australian-Americans.
The NBL is both a stepping stone to other coaching roles and a place experienced coaches return to.
Coaches usually arrive with varying experience in Europe or America.
Like Koponen, Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum had no head-coaching experience with professional teams before he took over the Hawks in 2023 and ultimately guided them to last season’s championship.
Former NBA player Scott Roth was the inaugural coach of the Tasmania JackJumpers in the 2021/22 season and was recognised as the NBL Coach of the Year that season, before the team won the championship in 2024.
Roth had years of experience in both America and Europe before joining the NBL.
Coaches also bounce around the league, with 72-year-old Goorjian first coaching the Kings in the early 2000s, before switching to the now-defunct South Dragons for a season, returning from Asia to coach the Hawks and then moving on to his current role with the Kings.
Australian Adam Forde, currently the Cairns Taipans head coach, has also had involvement with the Kings and the Perth Wildcats.
The Breakers want to win more NBL titles and securing the right coach will be crucial, but in the NBL, there is no one pathway to getting a winning coach on board.
– RNZ