Despite the exit of club legend Dillon Boucher, the Breakers' ownership group are still committed to basketball in New Zealand, says owner Matt Short.
Having been involved in both on- and off-court roles with the Breakers since 2003, Boucher yesterday announced that he's leaving his role of the Auckland club's general manager - joining the likes of Paul Henare, Kevin Braswell and Mika Vukona as club icons to have left the Breakers recently.
Speaking to 1 NEWS, though, owner Short says that the club are still grounded in the local culture, despite the loss of so many of the names that made the club one of New Zealand's most successful sporting institutions over the past decade.
"It's a big loss, no matter how you cut it," Short said.
"Dillon Boucher has meant a lot to not only the Breakers, but to New Zealand basketball.
"It's a loss - there's no two ways to paint it - but we've got a lot of positive stuff going. We understand our roots in New Zealand basketball.
"When we bought the team we wanted to extend what the [previous owners] Blackwells had done, what Dillon, Mika and all those guys had built.
"That's the plan, that's going to continue to be the plan. Losing Dillon is a loss, but we've got a lot of positive things going, we're going to build on them, continue to take the brand, the team and build basketball in New Zealand, because that's what our number one focus is."
With no plans to immediately replace Boucher as the Breakers' general manager, Short continued to say that the office staff can cope without the club stalwart's influence.
"It's just a little bit of extra work for us up in the office," Short continued.
"We'll all just have to pick up the slack. When the time is right, we understand exactly what we want in that role, and we'll go out and get somebody."
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