Basketball Hawke's Bay general manager Paul Trass was relieved to see Baldwin: "My stress levels are down - it is really hell recruiting a team with one person in China and one person in Napier.
"We have some really exciting things happening - some announcements we can now make regarding sponsors and players."
Baldwin has an easy rapport with Trass, who he said put in "mountains and mountains of work for years and years" for the love of the game.
"Paul didn't get this grey hair because he got old."
Baldwin's relationship with Hawke's Bay Basketball general manager operations Curtis Wooten is also strong - Wooten was Baldwin's assistant coach and flatmate in Auckland.
"Where the Hawks have been is a credit to these guys," Baldwin said. He felt there was no one thing he had learned from China.
"I think I have, more and more every year, learned what professionalism is and what it isn't - professionalism doesn't require money."
His four children weren't at the airport to greet him - they were starting their new schools - but his wife, Efi, was.
Baldwin's plan for the season was simple.
"To win and win a lot. We have to put the team together and we are well under way with that.
"Paul and Curtis do a great job at that, so now I am here to just finish what they have started and get stuck in."
