Interview with Dillon Boucher

51 Thoughts got an exclusive interview with Ex Basketball Great, and New Zealand Breakers and Tall Black Legend Dillon Boucher. He spoke with us about his career and retirement.

Dillon Boucher grew up as a backyard Kiwi boy; Boucher played various sports throughout his childhood from Cricket to Tennis, and Rugby to Basketball. Boucher who was heavily influenced by his brothers, found his love in Basketball. As a young man he didn’t know that one day he would be one of the greatest Kiwi Basketballers in New Zealand history.

Bouchers career began when he was selected to play for the Auckland Stars in (1994); he was picked up by Tab Baldwin while playing a three-on-three tournament. In (2003) Boucher was then picked up by the Breakers, and in 2003 he was excited to debut for the Breakers “It was exciting to debut in that game to create history for the country was pretty cool and amazing, and we won a game in front of a sold out crowd!”

In 2005, Boucher was forced to leave the Breakers to go to Perth “It was really hard to pack up and know that I couldn’t even play in my own backyard, for the team I wanted to play for” he did end up going to a strong organisation, during the time he spent there it had being a massive learning curve for the young man “I learnt a lot going away, when I went to Perth I went to a really strong organisation and I learnt a lot about winning, how to prepare and how to be a bit more professional I learnt a lot going away” In 2008, Boucher decided to come back home, at the same time the Breakers were trying to recruit CJ Bruton, Boucher and Bruton played together in Brisbane and had being good team mates, CJ was among one of the biggest reasons why he came home, “CJ and I continued to be team mates so he’s being my longest team mate in the NBL competition, we played for about seven or eight years together.  It was a partnership we weren’t willing to break, so we wanted to both continue playing together and we both came back to the Breakers at the same time”

Dillon Boucher, was a part of the team that pioneered Basketball in New Zealand and made the game what it is today. He started playing in a time when the culture of the sport had a bad reputation in New Zealand, although the players were nice and got along well with each other. “Nowadays the culture is very strong, and there are very strong values, things that keep the club in the right direction” In Bouchers opinion the Breakers also joining the ANBL was a huge step forward. The Breakers have become idealistic idols which children can aspire to  “You need to have people you aspire to be and teams you aspire to be on”

In 2013, after the Breakers won their third ANBL Championship in a row, one of the greatest New Zealand Basketballers retired. Injuries eventually took their toll and Boucher felt it was time to leave the great game he helped better to the younger generation to grow. He describes one of his most precious memories “The single most proudest would be when I had my jersey retired by the Breakers, it was a pretty special moment for me, to know that I meant that much to a club that they would hang my jersey from the rafters and they’ve never allowed anyone to wear that number ever again”