A new national league for women’s basketball - with equal pay to the men’s league – will give a giant boost to the sport’s development on home soil and lure Kiwis home, Merryn Anderson writes.
Zoe Richards manages to fit in a phone call after a full day’s work as an early childhood teacher in Dunedin, changing nappies and staying late after a busy day. She doesn’t have the night off though, heading to basketball training later in the evening, yet she still keeps a happy face.
The 24-year-old played college basketball in the United States for four years on a basketball scholarship straight out of high school, and this year spent a season with the Rockingham Flames in Australia before returning home to New Zealand.
Her full-time job is a necessity without a basketball contract, but Richards has to remain flexible when it comes to her basketball commitments, especially as part of the Tall Ferns squad.
“That’s been a huge struggle for me, just trying to balance that,” says Richards. “Because I’m not on a contract for a team at the moment, I’ve had to come home and find a job and work.”
Starting in July next year, the eight-week women’s National Basketball League (NBL) season will provide a new salary system for players, ensuring they can make basketball their main priority.
For the first time in the NBL, player payments will be equal between the men’s and women’s leagues – an initiative Basketball New Zealand (BBNZ) hopes will lure Kiwis honing their craft overseas to return home to play.
Tipping off in July 2022, the new league will consist of five teams representing regions North, Mid-North, Central, Upper South and Lower South.
The five women’s franchises will have brand new identities, and won’t be linked to the men’s league, starting in April.
The partnership between BBNZ and Sky is a five-year deal designed to increase visibility and accessibility of home games and ultimately lift New Zealand basketball on a global scale.
The new league will be a gamechanger for not only Richards and other players in New Zealand, but for those Kiwi women playing basketball overseas to have something tangible to come home to.
There are currently 64 Kiwi women playing collegiate basketball in the United States and Canada; 28 play in the NCAA Division I - that’s more than Kiwi men, who have 16 in the top-tier collegiate competition.
With players like sisters Charlisse and Krystal Leger-Walker playing Division I, and Penina Davidson and Chevannah Paalvast starring in Australia’s WNBL, the Tall Ferns struggle to find time to train together as a team and hone their connections.
Richards travelled to Jordan with the Tall Ferns for the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in September, where the team came fifth overall - just missing out on automatic qualification for the 2022 World Cup.
It was far from a vacation for the squad, with young mum Tessa Boagni taking her one-year-old son Noah with her, and some of the team continuing to work remotely during their time in Asia, without the luxury of being able to take time off.
While the team was full of talent, the lack of time spent playing together in preparation may have hurt the Tall Ferns, struggling with putting out consistent team performances.
“It takes a while to find that spark with each player or find what different people do quite well,” says Richards.
“Having this league and getting players to come back will mean we can train more often as a team. We’ll be able to develop more on working together as a team and understanding what each player’s skills are and how they help the team.
“Connections don’t happen just like that, so building the connections with different players and doing that really does help, it helps the team a lot.”
The scheduling for the women’s league looks to lead into a Tall Ferns series, says former NBL general manager Justin Nelson, now Sky’s head of commercial and events.
It’s hoped the schedule will encourage Tall Ferns players to return home and play in the league before combining for national duties.
“In putting this concept together, it was really important for basketball to provide an opportunity for all of the talented Kiwis overseas to come home and play. And to do it in a way that’s supporting their career,” says Nelson.
Each team will play 12 games over eight weeks as part of the regular season, with each team having six home games, encouraged to be spread around their region.
Imports are welcome in the new league, and BBNZ hope the pay equality will draw some big names.
“It’s what we’ve been missing here in New Zealand for women’s basketball,” says Nelson. “We’ve had a competition, but it just hasn’t effectively underpinned the Tall Ferns because the best players are forced to live and play overseas.”
Richards agrees. “Having all the best players coming back and wanting to play in New Zealand, that will build the whole basketball level up immensely and will then be a flow-on effect to the Tall Ferns,” she says.
“Because a lot of players will come back and play, they’ll play together or against each other, everyone will value the New Zealand league so much more - and then hopefully we’ll perform better on the national stage.”
Richards felt playing overseas this year was a necessity for her to develop as a player, in a semi-professional league where she knew the commitment levels of her teammates and coaches.
“That’s what’s really exciting about the new league - because they’re going to be paying players, it’s going to be a professional league now,” explains Richards.
“That’s going to lift the professionalism of the clubs and everyone’s commitment to playing the game and going to practices. Everything’s going to lift immensely.”
The partnership between Sky and BBNZ will see over 300 games broadcast live alongside free-to-air coverage, providing access for the whole country to watch.
Richards believes the new league is a game-changer for the sport in New Zealand, seeing what can be achieved with the commitment to the women’s game.
“Getting more girls and the younger generation involved and hoping to inspire them I think is the huge key for the development and the future of women’s basketball in New Zealand,” she says.
“Now that they’re going to be paying players, it will really take the stress out of the players worrying about income and it really just means that basketball for women is taken more seriously, showing that they value women’s basketball, it’s not just a side thing.
“There is a career in basketball, and it’s also showing that to the younger girls as well, that you can play professionally. Basketball New Zealand is really pushing for it, there is a pathway for that career.”
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