New Zealand Breakers

Spark Arena is a venue in Auckland.

Waikato businessmen Michael Redman, Dallas Fisher and Keith Ward put the club together in 2003, and by the following season the Breakers were the first New Zealand side in the competition, with Jeff Green as the inaugural coach. Ownership has moved on since — through the Blackwells, a group led by Matt Walsh, and now Marc Mitchell.

Between 2011 and 2013 Auckland won three straight titles, beating Cairns and then Perth twice to complete the run, and added a fourth in 2015 against Cairns again. Cedric Jackson was named Grand Final MVP in two of those finals, and Kirk Penney, the club's all-time leading scorer and a former NBL MVP, gave the run its most recognisable face. Thomas Abercrombie stayed long enough to become the most-capped player in club history and had his number retired at the end of it. More recently, the club opened a new trophy cabinet shelf by winning the inaugural NBL Ignite Cup, edging Adelaide 111–107.

None of that has cooled the needle with Perth. The Wildcats and the Breakers have met often enough in finals, including the 2011–12 decider, that the fixture carries its own name in Australasian basketball: the Derby of Distance, a rivalry built on the sheer stretch of the Tasman Sea between the two clubs' fanbases.