Breakers Courting Three Next Stars

Friday, February 24, 2023

New Zealand Breakers’ owner Matt Walsh is in conversations with three talented young players to join the Next Stars program for the 2023/24 season.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, Walsh “confirmed the Breakers were in discussions with three high-profile young players to fill the Next Star spot on their roster for the 2023/24 NBL season, and expected to have confirmation of that role over the next couple of months”.

The Breakers have used the Next Stars program prolifically since its inception.

RJ Hampton, New Zealand’s first Next Star, was drafted as the 24^th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. In the 2022 NBA Draft, Ousmane Dieng was pick number 11, while Hugo Besson, who was an import and not a Next Star, was pick number 58.

Current Next Star, Frenchman Rayan Rupert, is expected to be picked between the 10 and 20 spots in the upcoming 2023 NBA Draft.

Rupert has starred this season and is the first ever Next Star to reach a Championship Series.

Walsh has praised Rupert’s efforts this season, and is optimistic he will be a high draft pick.

“I think one of the things we should be most proud of is, we’ve certainly had more success than anybody with the Next Stars Programme. We’re going to continue that…I think Rayan’s going to be a top 12, top 10 pick for sure,” he said.

“The good thing is once you have kind of proved what you’re able to do with these guys, agents and players come to you. We’ve had a little bit of that.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rayan Rupert is every NBA teams dream ?<br><br>At 18 years old the Next Star is one of the hardest workers ever seen at the Breakers ??<br><br>Don't miss any of the NBL23 Championship Series - starting Friday, March 3 ? <a href="https://t.co/r2bfiWKXWK">pic.twitter.com/r2bfiWKXWK</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1628627380939137025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

With the achievement of moulding players to become NBA ready, and the NBL’s growing global impact, Walsh declared NBA clubs are keen to have the Breakers involved in their pre-season.

“We’ve got just about every team in the NBA wanting to play us in pre-season, because now they know we’re going to have a high-profile Next Star for next season,” Walsh said.

“One of the things we wanted to do as an ownership group was to put the Breakers on the scene in terms of a global basketball entity and I think we’ve done that and I think there’s still work to be done.”

Game 1 of the best-of-five Championship Series between Sydney and New Zealand tips off Friday March 3 at Qudos Bank Arena at 7:30pm AEDT. The game will be broadcast live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach, 10 play, and Sky Sport in NZ.