KEY POINTS:
There's a fine line between love and hate when it comes to Dillon Boucher.
It's hard to find a bigger devotee of the Breakers than the 32-year-old but for three years he despised the franchise.
"I hated them," he says. "I hated the Breakers, purely because I wasn't on the team. I didn't hate the players or [coach] Andrej Lemanis. I hated the fact there was a team in New Zealand and I wasn't part of it.
"Every time I played them I wanted to beat them. It wasn't a case of sour grapes. It was the competitiveness in me and wanting to prove I was good enough to come back and play for that team. I wanted to finish my career here and that's what I see happening. I will be here as long as the club wants me."
That's the thing. Boucher is back with the Breakers. Back with the family that previously split after a messy divorce.
A number of signs litter the walls of the specially constructed Breakers training facility on the North Shore. "Team is everything", "integrity", "respect" they remind everyone.
Motivational messages are de rigeur these days and Boucher seems to like them. In conversation he reprises another, 'in the chest, not in the back'.
In the case of the 196cm small forward, it's particularly appropriate. It's the way he will approach his second stint with the Auckland-based outfit.
You could say he was both the knife wielder and victim at the end of his previous time with the Breakers in 2004. It was an episode that ended ugly.
A frustrated Boucher sent a text message to former coach and mentor Jeff Green about coach Frank Arsego. Green made the message public and, not long after, Boucher's contract was not renewed.
Arsego was sacked as coach soon after and others, such as Pero Cameron and chief executive Peter Chapman, were also shown the door.
It's an affair that still hurts Boucher, even three years later, but he realises he was partly to blame for his demise at a club he desperately wanted to play for. He has returned older and, seemingly, a lot wiser.
"I wasn't the model player or model team-mate. I spoke up when I thought things weren't right with the coach last time and it backfired and probably burnt me.
"It's one thing I have learned as a player and professional. Sometimes it's better to shut your mouth and go along with it rather than be passionate about what you're doing and speak up.
"I really feel that was a big reason why the team got rid of me. They saw me as starting fires where they didn't need to be started. But Frank ended up being fired anyway, so maybe they were listening in one ear and not the other.
"I don't regret it, not at all. I'm a passionate person. I regret how I went about it and not speaking to Frank about his weaknesses but I don't regret speaking up.
"That's one thing I have made clear to Andrej [Lemanis]. If I have a problem with him I will confront him with what I think needs to be done. Whether he listens is up to him. That was one thing we had talks about when I signed up, how things were going to be done."
That's Boucher. He cares. He's a leader. He is, despite what others might think, the consummate team man.
But Boucher should still be at the Brisbane Bullets, where he won an ANBL title in 2006-07. He still had one year left on his Brisbane contract but when the owners fell into financial difficulties and told the players to look for other jobs, Boucher decided to return to New Zealand with his young family.
Initially he thought he might have to return to the 'real world' - although not as a travel agent again - but the departure of Mika Vukona to Melbourne's Souths Dragons opened a spot on the Breakers' roster.
"It was touch and go because I didn't know if Andrej liked me as a player," Boucher says. "I had never been coached by him. Guys on the team put in good words for me, like [new signing and former Brisbane team-mate] CJ Bruton, who spoke highly of me. He helped convince Andrej I was the piece in the puzzle he was looking for and earlier I had sold coming to New Zealand to CJ. It all turned out perfectly for me.
"This team and organisation has changed a hell of a lot since I was here last. I can say only good things about Andrej and the franchise. As players we want to do well so it can become a complete organisation. It's in a good place right now."
When the Breakers season tips off against the Wollongong Hawks on Thursday, they will do so with increased expectations. They are rated as fourth favourites by Australian bookies and merely making the playoffs, as they did for the first time as a franchise last season, will not be enough.
They have a settled squad and could also consider themselves the best shooting team in the league with the likes of Kirk Penney and Phill Jones. And in Bruton they have a player who could add the x-factor they have been looking for.
Boucher is unlikely to start but he will have a big role to play off the bench. He is the first to admit he's not the best shooter in the world but he makes up for it with his hustling style on defence and his propensity for steals. He describes his role as trying to be the "spark plug" for the team.
His selfless, whole-hearted approach was recognised in Brisbane's title-winning year when he won the Vince Hickey Trophy, the club's major award for all-round commitment to the game on and off the court.
"It's always said a franchise takes five years to work things out and we are now in our sixth year, so it's time for business," Boucher says about his side's chances this season. "We are no longer a new team.
"Perth and Brisbane, the two teams I played for, expect to win every game. Back in the day with the Breakers, although we told ourselves that, I don't think we truly believed it. But this team does.
"We are setting our sights very high this year. If we don't come away with some great results into the playoffs, we will see it as a failure. We truly believe we have a team that can win this championship. Will we win it? Well, that's still to be seen but we have taken every step to do that."
