The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Sky Sport Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at multiple venues, mainly Spark Arena. The team was founded in 2003 by three Waikato businessmen, Dallas Fisher, Michael Redman and Keith Ward, and remains the only team in the league to compete from New Zealand. The team was bought by Liz and Paul Blackwell in 2005.[1][2] The couple owned the team until February 2018, when a consortium headed by former NBA player Matt Walsh became the majority shareholders via a newly formed company called Breakers Basketball Ltd.[3]
The Breakers are one of two teams (the other being the now-absent Singapore Slingers) from outside of Australia to have competed in the NBL. In 2011, the Breakers won their first NBL Championship and successfully defended it in 2012 and 2013, claiming the second three-peat in NBL history. They again won the title in 2015, before finishing as runners-up in 2016.