Don Leypoldt
The Orlando Magic’s R.J. Hampton won the May NBA Rookie of the Month, and New Zealand basketball fans received the news just as enthusiastically as their hoops brethren in Central Florida.
Holland’s Matt Walsh authored the Kiwis’ ardor for Hampton. In return, Hampton’s standout play validated Walsh’s gutsy judgment call and foresight.
Hampton, then a highly recruited high school senior, signed with the New Zealand Breakers in May 2019. He became the first American prepster to join the National Basketball League’s (NBL) Next Stars program. The Breakers are the lone non-Australian franchise in the NBL.
Signing Hampton “was a recruiting process,” explained Walsh, the Breakers’ owner and CEO. “I wanted to make it clear from the very start: We’re never going to compete with (college) in a traditional sense. If you tell me you are interested in going to school then I’m going to tell you that I had an amazing experience in college and best of luck to you.
“But if you’re looking to develop as a pro, and you are looking at an alternate path, then this is the best place in the world to do it,” continued Walsh, who was a two-time all-SEC honoree at Florida. “It’s an amazing country. It’s an amazing league and we’ve got an amazing staff. After months of recruiting him, the family came to us and said, ‘We believe this is the best place for R.J. to develop.’”
“I never wanted to be normal,” Hampton told the Kansas City Star at the signing. “I kind of wanted to set the trend for the other guys coming up, to show them, ‘Hey this is not the only route you can take.’ I feel this is a better option for me.”
Three weeks later, to more publicity, LaMelo Ball signed a Next Stars deal with the NBL’s Illawarra Hawks. Ball recently won the NBA Rookie of the Year. Both Ball and Hampton were selected in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft, after successful NBL seasons.
The exodus of top American prep talent caught the NBA’s attention. Not coincidentally, three months after Hampton’s signing, the NBA announced the creation of the Ignite team in its developmental G-League.
“A team dedicated to developing top young players through a one-year program,” trumpeted NBA.com, “Ignite is focused on NBA Draft readiness and growth of professional life skills.”
Walsh ignored predictions that Ignite’s creation would doom the Next Stars program. Days after the end of the Breakers’ regular season, on June 2, New Zealand inked French prep guard Ousmane Dieng as a Next Star. Dieng was recently projected as the 14th best prospect in the 2022 NBA Draft.
“We play a major role in giving these kids a platform to develop,” Walsh shared. “At the same time, we want them committed to winning and being about the right things. We nailed it with R.J: A great kid from a great family. I think we nailed it again with Ousmane, who has been amazing so far. It’s not often you get to work with an 18-year-old who is 6-foot-9 and has that skill set.”
New Zealand won four of five NBL titles from 2011-2015. Walsh spearheaded the group that purchased the Breakers in February 2018.
“I wake up every day thinking: ‘How can we build this brand into a global brand?’ I didn’t buy with eyes on just being a successful NBL team,” Walsh said. “I bought this brand to continue to grow our presence in the States.
“I’m working on big picture stuff like sponsors that we’re bringing on or signing the Next Stars,” Walsh explained. “I’m fortunate that our COO – Lisa Edser – is great at the day-to-day because that’s not my strong suit.”
Owning an overseas professional basketball team perfectly fits Walsh’s background. He had a cup of coffee with the Miami Heat before embarking on a 10-year pro career in Europe.
Walsh’s worldwide basketball journey began in Holland. He gives ample credit to the St. Bede’s CYO program and his coach, the late Dan Craige.
“Dan Craige, (Germantown Academy) coach (Jim) Fenerty and my dad – no one had a bigger influence than those three in my basketball life,” Walsh declared. “It all started at St. Bede’s. That’s where I learned the proper way to play, fundamentals and being a good teammate from Coach Craige. We had a new gym and we would pack that thing out with a couple of hundred people. Those are my first memories of playing in front of big crowds.
“A lot of guys don’t have proper coaching until they get to college and I had proper coaching from the time I was 12 years old. I was very fortunate that I had great people influencing me from a basketball perspective from day one,” Walsh concluded.
A 5-foot-10 freshman who eventually sprouted to 6-foot-6, Walsh graduated from Germantown Academy as one of the country’s most desired recruits. “It was probably a blessing and a curse to some degree,” Walsh reflected, “but I was so competitive and wanted to win every single thing. Even a little shooting drill.
“I heard some corny quote when I was a kid: ‘There is always someone out there working harder than you.’ That haunted me,” Walsh shared. “I’d have a voice in my head saying ‘You’re going to sleep in? Someone out there is getting shots up.’ My dad ingrained in me a work ethic from early on.”
Walsh stamped his mark during his three Florida seasons. He is still UF’s eighth most prolific 3-point shooter. When Florida won its first ever SEC Conference tournament in 2005, Walsh took home the tourney MVP.
“Coach (Billy) Donovan and his staff were the absolute best. At a high level program like Florida, you’re asked a lot and it feels like you’re working so hard. Yet no matter how hard we worked, it feels like the coaches were working harder,” Walsh reflected.
“Coach Craige, Coach Fenerty and Coach Donovan: Those guys always worked harder than everyone else and they really cared about you. When you do that, it’s hard not to be coachable because you see what they are putting in.” The Breakers played Donovan’s then-Oklahoma City Thunder team in an October 2019 exhibition that Walsh called “the thrill of a lifetime.”
Walsh briefly played for the Miami Heat after college. “I still have my player’s rulebook,” Walsh said. “The rules that we reference here are heavily influenced by Miami Heat culture.”
The New Jersey Nets cut Walsh on the last day of 2006 training camp. A few days later, Walsh boarded a plane to Greece to start his European career. He eventually earned first team All-Import honors once in Greece and twice in Belgium.
“I certainly had more than a chip on my shoulder. I felt like I should be in the NBA, and I had to figure out a way to get back there,” Walsh admitted. “But you get to a point where you realize that this is most likely your path and you need to make the most of it. I took a totally different approach. I took the opportunity to see everything. I bounced around Europe. It ended up being the most amazing life experience I could ever ask for, and it prepared me for what was next.”
Walsh retired in 2015 and became involved in the ownership groups of two soccer clubs: D.C. United and the English Premier League’s Swansea City. Purchasing an NBL team seemed as likely as seeing a kangaroo in Bucks County.
ESPN’s Jonathan Givony approached Walsh about the Breakers. “My response, and I can’t use the language here was, ‘What are you talking about?’” Walsh recalled. But as Walsh researched the quality of the NBL and the soaring basketball participation rate in New Zealand, he became convinced ownership could work.
“I saw an organization that had been very successful on the court but commercially, had just 2,500 people coming to this beautiful arena that holds 8,000. I saw a huge opportunity to bring an NBA game day to New Zealand,” Walsh explained. “New Zealand punches above their weight globally, but it hadn’t really turned games into an ‘event’ like in the United States.
“At the end of the day, if you come here and have a great time, you don’t necessarily care if the Breakers won,” he continued. “We always talk about being in the events business.” The Breakers sold out six of their final seven games and have more than doubled their attendance since Walsh’s purchase.
Pre-COVID, Walsh returned home with surprising frequency for living half a world away. “The first thing I do is see my family. My niece is like my older daughter and I miss them so much,” Walsh described. “Then I get good buffalo wings because you just can’t get them the same over here. Wings and a Rita’s water ice and I’m a happy man.”
Walsh articulates the phrase “wooder ice” perfectly. He may have played NBA ball in Miami, won championships in Belgium, earned accolades in Greece and now runs a team in New Zealand … but you still can’t take the Bucks County out of Matt Walsh.
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