I am pretty sure Paul Henare won’t get offended by me using the term ugly duckling. He knows it is nothing to do with his appearance or any of his traits as a person.

Henare has been copping it from some fans his whole career who think his basketball game is far from a thing of beauty and that he isn’t up to the grade.

Rather than worry about it, Pauli embraces it and uses it as motivation.

“I am who I am, I have never tried to be anyone else. I realise all the knockers and haters I have, but to be honest I don’t care!” Henare said with an air of defiance that has been a trademark of his career.

“I am who I am and I do what I do, and there’s an obvious need for what I do, or the coaches and selectors wouldn’t choose me.”

What he does is play hard every minute of the game, playing the sport with more intensity and physicality than most. “That is probably my rugby background where that came from,” he said.

“That was my sport, I was born and bred a rugby player. And I still miss it to this day, I think I’ll probably go play somewhere when I retire.”

While most basketball fans realise that Henare represented New Zealand, many are unaware of just how valuable a member of the team he was, providing a spark off the bench.

In the Tall Blacks crucial final second round game at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, Henare played nine crucial minutes that produced 4 assists and not a single turnover as New Zealand won the final quarter 31-17 to beat China 94-88 and not only progress to the Quarter Finals, but also set up a favourable match-up with Puerto Rico.

The rest, as we all know, is history, and along with the 2001 FIBA Oceania win over Australia, the undoubted highlight of Henare’s career.

At the 2006 FIBA World Championship, Henare produced one of his best ever performances against Spain, knocking in 11 points on 4/5 shooting along with 3 assists in 36 minutes.

Henare believes that by having faith in your own ability funny things can happen.

“I guess the best thing about my game is I can play it in the social league at the local gym and I can play it at the Olympics against Juan Carlos Navarro,” he said.

“I can play it at any level, and I think that’s the main reason for me being able to play at the highest level. At those big tournaments you match up against some pretty good players and to be honest I held my own.”

And while his international career is something Pauli looks back on with great pride, so is his NBL career. And it is no secret to anyone who follows the league that Henare and his teammates are hellbent on sending him out with a big farewell.

“Nothing matters but the championship. That is what we are all after, we all have a common goal.”

Indeed, but so do Townsville, Cairns and Perth, and after it looked a case of how far Breakers earlier in the season, the favourite’s late season form slump means it is now a four horse race.

So why have the Breakers dropped away? If you look at the numbers, Henare is as involved as ever.

In New Zealand’s disappointing 2009-2010 season they were 12-5 when Henare played 17 minutes or more, and just 3-8 when he didn’t. This year the story is similar, with the Breakers 16-2 when Henare cracks that 17 minute mark and 6-4 when he doesn’t.

So why does Henare seemingly have so big an effect? Well, to be honest, he is just part of it.

His ability to push the ball, defend full court, contain the ball and also be disciplined to his role on offence is of great value to the team and helps gun scorers like Kirk Penney, Gary Wilkinson and CJ Bruton at both ends of the floor.

For mine though, the amount Henare is on the floor tells the story of what approach Andrej Lemanis and the Breakers are taking.

For a number of years now Lemanis has orchestrated one of, if not the highest scoring offence in the NBL. That is one of his great strengths as a coach. It’s no secret the reason the Breakers haven’t made any noise in the playoffs is they don’t get the job done at the other end.

Earlier this year they tried a different approach. Minutes were shared equally. The prime focus of the team was effort on defence. They played full court, switched aggressively on screens and were good at disrupting the opposition. The defence created the offence.

As the season has worn on though, and the sublime offensive skills of Penney and Wilkinson have shone through, the team has gone back to one based on offence.

From the New Year’s Eve game against Townsville, the Breakers have recorded four of their six losses, and also recorded a number of unconvincing wins against lesser opposition.

Not surprisingly, in that stretch came seven games where Paul Henare didn’t hit the 17 minute mark. In contrast, Kirk Penney’s minutes and shot attempts went up. In the recent stretch where the Breakers went 3-3 and looked very susceptible, Penney averaged almost 35 minutes per game and took 17 shots per game.

In games earlier in the season against their top four opponents, Penney averaged 30 minutes and took just 13 shots per game. The Breakers were 4-1 in those contests.

Don’t get me wrong though, it is not about one player being to blame, it is about how Lemanis has the Breakers approaching the game. To me, it seems when their focus is about effort on defence, the offence and the wins take care of themselves.

If that means their starters play fewer minutes as they recover from their intense efforts on D, so be it.

When New Zealand become a team reliant on their offence to win games, more often than not they lose to teams who are keyed in defensively. If the Breakers want to give Paul Henare the send off his years of hard work deserve, they need to take a leaf out of his book.

Of course, Henare is a man who takes if as it comes. And while it might not seem like it when he is on the court, he says it won’t be the end of the world if the Breakers come up short, as disappointing as it would be.

This farewell season has given him a chance to reflect on where he has come from, and the amazing journey basketball has taken him on.

“I am from Hawkes Bay in Napier. I started playing down at the local school, I was about 9 years old I think. I started playing when my big bro started playing, and it’s taken me some pretty cool places.

“I’ve stayed true to myself. I don’t go out and try to be a CJ Bruton because CJ is CJ, and Pauli is Pauli. I have accepted that a long time ago.

“I take pride in the jersey I play for, whoever that may be, I take pride in doing what I do and I take pride in being a good teammate, and that’s obviously taken me some good places.”

And while he says it isn’t the end of the world, you can bet Pauli would go to all ends of the Earth to make sure there is one more “good place” left on his basketball journey. Maybe then he’ll finally be acknowledged as a swan and not an ugly duckling.

 

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Basketball League.