Basketball New Zealand

Breaker guard Paul Henare (Photosport)

Marc Hinton, Fairfax Media
Whatever NZ Breakers point guard Paul Henare has in store for himself over the rest of the Australian NBL season, it can’t be as tough as the last fortnight he’s just dealt with.

He can rest assured on that score.

Henare has missed the last two Breakers matches to attend to his five-year-old son Jackson who was involved in a nasty lawn mower accident that eventually saw the youngster lose half his foot.

Suddenly, basketball - the driving force in Paul Henare’s life - took a back seat. Suddenly, the fortunes of the Breakers didn’t seem so important after all.

It has been an emotional time for the whole extended family, and Henare has nothing but admiration for the manner in which his young son has dealt with the trauma, the surgery and the difficult process of getting back on his feet.

“He’s doing well,” Henare told Fairfax Media today after finishing an intense morning training session at the Breakers facility on the North Shore. “He’s leaving Lower Hutt hospital today, and will head back to Hawke’s Bay.

“He’ll have a day or two in Hastings hospital so they can keep tabs on him and then he’ll be back home. They’re trying him out on a walker today so he can get himself around, and the surgeons are really happy with how he’s healing and what they could save.”

Henare said there’s strong hope his son will eventually be able to walk again, with the heel part of his damaged foot intact.

“He’s young, he’s resilient, and he’s been amazing over the last couple of weeks. By the looks of him he’ll be all right.”

Henare rejoined the Breakers last Friday, once his son was through the worst of his ordeal. And he arrived back at HQ emotionally and physically spent.

“That’s the biggest thing that hit me, probably three or four days before I came back to Auckland,” he said. “I was absolutely exhausted. Seeing one of your own go through what he experienced was just not nice at all.

“But the way he went about it… being young helps, and he’s taken it in stride. It’s why I’m so confident that he’ll adapt and cope with it all, because of the way he’s been dealing with it.”

Henare said it was an “automatic” call to leave the team and head to his son’s hospital bedside the week of their second NBL match against defending champs the Melbourne Tigers. “It’s one of those times in life when family comes first,” he said, ne’er a truer word spoken.

The foundation Breaker has had the club’s full support the whole time, and the backup point man admitted it had been emotional for him watching them step up and nail two big wins in his absence to take their record to 3-0.

“I got to see the [Tigers] game that night, and it did bring a few tears to my eyes just seeing the support and the love they have shown me through these tough times,” he reflected.

The 29-year-old former Tall Black stalwart said it had been tough initially to get his legs and his lungs back after a period of inactivity, but he was confident by Thursday night’s tipoff against the Cairns Taipans he’d be ready to do whatever is required of him.

Which is bring energy and intensity off the bench and provide leadership while he’s out there spelling star new point guard CJ Bruton. It’s a role Phill Jones filled admirably on a caretaker basis, but the southpaw shooting guard will happily step back to the off-the-ball role now Henare is back.

“It’s about energy,” said Henare of his role. “That’s guys like myself and Dillon [Boucher] coming off the bench. We’ve got such a talented starting lineup, it’s our job to make sure there is no dropoff, and if anything a gain in intensity. That, and making sure the team is running well, is pretty much what my role has always been.”

And the 3-0 Breakers, the only undefeated side in the NBL?

“They’re going very well,” says Henare, before correcting himself. “We are going very well. But its something we wanted to do, we expected to be in this position. In terms of short-term goals we’ve got this game and one next week to complete the first part of our major goal.”

Yes, things will be back to normal this week. Henare back in the Breakers mix, and young Jackson back in the Bay with a smile back on his face as he watches his dad on the telly.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to drag him away from that PSP he got as a gift to watch some basketball on TV,” said Henare. Count on it.