The Burger King NZ Breakers begin the final week of preparations for the Australian National Basketball League knowing that expectation is rising ahead of their season opening game on Thursday night at the North Shore Events Centre. Favouritism is not something the club is used to but after last season’s semi final run and solid recruiting during the off season, the North Shore based club is getting used to being tipped as amongst the league heavyweights.

Burger King Breakers General Manager Richard Clarke says the club and the players are aware of that growing sentiment.

“It is not something we can shy away from but equally it is not something that we place any real meaning in. It is nothing more than speculation and while a compliment on where we are at with our programme, it doesn’t get you any wins on court. The players I think are both nervous and excited about that pressure. As with any start to a season there are nerves about how we will perform and how the new players will feature but the players also understand that the fans and media expect us to at least repeat last season’s semi final effort. But these guys know how to deal with that pressure, many of them have been in this league for a long time, some have championship rings to their name so I’m sure they will be ready come Thursday night.

“Andrej’s philosophy is ‘to improve every day’ and that is what we as a club continue to focus on. If we do that, the results will come as a consequence of that hard work, no one is going to hand it to us.”

That is certainly the case with the arrival of the Cairns Taipans for the opening game of the season. The Taipans have been busy in the off season with a recruitment drive that has netted amongst others former Breakers favourite Phill Jones and high scoring swingman Rich Melzer. Jones was named the ANBL best 6^th man from last season andwill relish the chance to prove the Breakers wrong after he was reluctantly let go in the off season. His battle with long time team mates such as Dillon Boucher and Paul Henare will likely be a highlight of the game. Melzer meanwhile makes a return to the ANBL and will be familiar to many Breakers fans after his impressive performances for the club in the early years of the clubs existence.