New Zealand Breakers are Champions!

After one of the most thrilling best-of-3 finals series ever witnessed in any sport, the New Zealand Breakers overcame a highly competitive and tough Perth Wildcats team to win their 2nd ANBL title in a row.

Undoubtedly, home ground advantage helped big time although you have to say the Breakers should have clinched the title in game 2 in Perth.

So nearly 9 years after the Breakers were first established to compete in the ANBL, they are champions not only once but twice now, and are undoubtedly the mother of all New Zealand teams competing in exclusively trans-Tasman professional sports leagues - we don't count Super Rugby here as South African teams play in that as well.

The Warriors took 16 years to win a Grand Final title and even then it was the Junior team that did it, back to back. The Wellington Phoenix have made the playoffs but don't quite look like a Grand Final winning team - perhaps to the relief of the whole Asian Football Confederation.

So hats off to the Breakers. Sure it's not the NBA or Euroleague but they did the best they could in the league they were in and as Perth showed, there is more than 1 good team in the ANBL. And give some credit to Australian and New Zealand basketball - both have stood tall in recent times against the more fancied European teams and the mighty and wealthy USA.

Furthermore, winning the championship in back to back years is always a difficult feat in any sport whatever the standard. The opposition is usually an improvement on last season and they're always up for beating the champions. Ask Barcelona too as they aim to become the first team in the Champions League era to win back-to-back titles - who knows this might be a good omen for the Catalans?

All New Zealanders should savour this result and hopefully the Breakers' domination can continue for a while yet helping to establish basketball as a sport to be reckoned with in this country. Look what the All Blacks domination did to rugby and Brazil to football.

So well done and congratulations to the SkyCity New Zealand Breakers! Double champions back to back...

And it feels good.