Basketball: Wilkinson sticks his chest out

Breakers' big man Gary Wilkinson. Photo / Getty Images

An athlete pumping his fist and beating his chest has become a common occurrence in sport, but when that athlete is ginger-haired and two metres plus the image created is rather more unconventional.

That's what you get with Breakers forward Gary Wilkinson, and if the Vector Arena crowd responds at the team's first home game against Sydney tomorrow then they might just be treated to that sight. It's what they got last season.

"That just comes with the game, and I'm a passionate player so if I feel it then it comes out,'' Wilkinson said. "I think if Vector gets going, then it's going to be one of those nights with the fist-pumping.''

The American import ensured Kiwi crowds would be treated to another season of emotion after re-signing with the Breakers, enticed as much by life off the court as he was by the chance to chase back-to-back Australian NBL championships. He tried his luck in Europe but decided to head back to Auckland to help the Breakers in their defence of their inaugural title.

"Coming back to a winning team's always good,'' he said. "It was an easy choice to come back.

"I love it here. My wife and I really fit in well with the club, and we love the country. It's a great place for us mentality-wise, culture-wise, everything.''

Another motivation was the opportunity to fill the void created by the loss of star player Kirk Penney, who has left to play in Span, but it was something Wilkinson said he could not do alone.

"For sure, I'll step up, but it's not only me but everyone else has to as well. No one player is going to replace Kirk Penney so we need guys to step up all over the place.

"I think that's what has been making us so good so far, different guys have to step up on different nights. It's hard for other teams to prepare for that.''

The evidence of that is clear. With three wins from four games in their season-opening road trip, the Breakers have shown they can prosper without Penney, but Wilkinson was not entirely satisfied.

"To be 4-0 is exactly where we wanted to be, and I think that we could've been there. In the end we did it to ourselves, we beat ourselves [against Melbourne],'' he said.

"Twenty-one turnovers, we didn't make plays down the end, we didn't run our offence as efficiently as we could have. It hurts because we know we could be 4-0 right now, not 3-1.''

That successful sojourn went largely unnoticed on this side of the Tasman in the midst of Rugby World Cup euphoria, and Wilkinson hoped now the Breakers were home they could grab a share of an enthused sporting public.

"I think we could, especially because we won a championship last year. We had a lot of momentum from supporters and I think the way we've started the season so far, people can kind of take that focus, that winning mentality, from the All Blacks and say, 'we have another Kiwi team doing really well, let's hop on that bandwagon'.''

Wilkinson watched from home as World Cup fever gripped the nation last weekend, spending the evening with his five-month-old son, Jordan James. The name is apt, even if it's nothing to do with basketball legend Michael Jordan.

"There's no basketball [in the name],'' he said. "We knew that was going to come out, though.''

With a new addition to the family and a winning team making a promising start to the defence of their title, all is well in Wilkinson's world, and it will only get better if the Breakers accomplish their goal for the season.

"I think we have the team to repeat. We have a lot of talent and a lot of guys aching to get a championship again, and that's what we want.''