Basketball is growing massively in popularity around the country, led by thousands of youngsters picking up the game every day. To the Line looks at what it’s like for New Zealand high school kids with hoop dreams. If there’s been a narrative rumbling away in the sports pages, it’s that of basketball’s seemingly unstoppable momentum … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Millions of dollars divvied up by Sport NZ, MSD’s problem with wrongly denied payments grows, and internal coalition battles emerge in time for election. It’s Friday, and there hasn’t been a lot of it recently, so we’re going to start with sport today. Don’t worry, it’s … Read more
Madeleine Chapman, who wrote the just-published biography Jacinda Ardern: A New Kind of Leader, says watching our prime minister handle the Covid-19 response is like watching an NBA star burst out from the pack. (Yesterday we published an extract). Rajon Rondo was the fourth-best player on the Boston Celtics roster in 2012. By nature of … Read more
Summer reissue: Madeleine Chapman wrote a book and was asked to speak about it at a writers festival. The problem was, nobody wanted to listen. First published 17 May, 2019 No one came. Seriously, no one came. The first sign, a red flag drifting through my subconscious, was the modest attendance at the three person … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Data breach blunder hits gun buyback, new poll gives National the numbers to govern, and South Island farm sale blocked by ministers. Another problem has hit the gun buyback programme, denting confidence in both the government and the police carrying out the operation. This time it … Read more
Guy and Paul Williams are brothers, comedians, and lifelong ballers; they love basketball so much they’ve dedicated a weekly podcast to it. They spoke to each other about their obsession with basketball. This story originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. Paul: Growing up, Guy and I used to play in the backyard a lot. And because … Read more
Every year the NBA holds an All-Star game, showcasing the best players in the league, as voted in by players, league officials, and fans. It’s time for New Zealand to make Steven Adams an All-Star. Here’s how. When was the last time you felt pure, unadulterated patriotism? Now when was the last time you put … Read more
Spinoff writer Madeleine Chapman co-wrote basketball star Steven Adams’ autobiography. She tells how she wrote the book alongside an athlete she’s known since they were both teenagers. Warning: contains a lot of food. This post was originally published 24 July 2018. I knew of Steven Adams before I met him. A common situation now but … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Biggest ever boost to minimum wage announced, Gerry Brownlee was well aware spy firm had been hired in CHCH, and Andrew Little talks about Google meeting. The minimum wage will jump by the largest single increase in history, from April 1 next year. The NZ Herald reports … Read more
New Zealand currently invests in Olympic medals when it should be investing in viable careers for our athletes, argues Madeleine Chapman. “Inspiring the nation through winning on the world stage” That’s the core value expressed by High Performance Sport New Zealand, the agency responsible for allocating government funding to national sporting bodies each year. Last … Read more
Tom Scott tells the story behind his unique music video/documentary ‘Old Dogs’. I spent a whole lot of my childhood in a place called Youth Town, a community centre on Nelson Street that was set up by a philanthropist to keep troubled kids occupied. Youth Town was like our second home growing up. The people … Read more
Veteran sports hack Joseph Romanos reviews My Life, My Fight by Steven Adams with Madeleine Chapman. Disclaimer: Madeleine Chapman is a staff writer at The Spinoff. This review was commissioned independently by our books editor, Steve Braunias. To judge by his autobiography, Steven Adams must be about the most down-to-earth, unprepossessing 25-year-old multi-millionaire on Earth. … Read more
In this edited extract from the new book by Steven Adams, he tells how as a rookie he got NBA veterans ejected, and it wasn’t that hard. The moment I was drafted someone tweeted WELP STEVEN ADAMS TO OKC and Kevin Durant apparently replied “smh”. He deleted the tweet and replaced it with “Welcome Steven Adams”. … Read more
Spinoff writer Madeleine Chapman co-wrote basketball star Steven Adams’ autobiography, in shops next week. She tells how she wrote the book alongside an athlete she’s known since they were both teenagers. Warning: contains a lot of food. I knew of Steven Adams before I met him. A common situation now but not so much in … Read more
In which a current MVP is made to play against a former benchwarmer. There’s a lazy confidence in watching sports on TV. Intellectually, we know we’re watching people do something better than we ever could. But emotionally we struggle to comprehend just how much better. There’s a tiny part of every Olympics spectator that whispers this … Read more
More than 20 people have been in touch with The Spinoff accusing Dommy Topia of fraudulent behaviour. And now it’s been revealed that Topia has been known to police for years. Dominic (Dommy) Topia – the man who’s been accused of swindling thousands of dollars from dozens of individuals around New Zealand – has been … Read more
The Allegory of the Cave, and Madden: Haimona Gray muses on how the two are actually pretty similar, using his own (limited) experience with sport and his (not-so-limited) experience with sports video games. I have never dunked in real life. Plato probably didn’t either. What makes Plato and I different – besides location, era, and cleanliness … Read more
The New Zealand Breakers have announced a new ownership group including two former NBA players. It’s a well-orchestrated transition which only serves to show how special former owners the Blackwells were, writes Andrew Mulligan. The Breakers just beat the Warriors to it, again. They were the first to bring a non-rugby title to the fully professional … Read more
Craig Cliff finds the narrative elements within the latest installment of the popular 2K franchise don’t work, unless you resort to a radical reading of DJ’s story. I’ve never played Dungeons and Dragons or Zelda or anything normally associated with role-playing or fantasy. Y’know, things you might expect a novelist-in-training might wallow in while waiting … Read more
The national secondary school basketball champs have been newly crowned, but more importantly, a star was brought to the fore. Madeleine Chapman introduces New Zealand basketball’s newest superstar. Charlisse Leger-Walker, a year 11 student at St Peters College in Cambridge, is the best school-aged basketball player New Zealand has ever seen. The Grand Final of … Read more
To celebrate the opening of the Spark Boroughs Victoria Park basketball court, The Spinoff gathered together a motley crew of musicians and media-types to play a ‘friendly’ game of 5-0n-5. Watch the highlights here. In the media team: Duncan Greive, Madeleine Chapman, Paul Williams, Melanie Bracewell, James Roque, Jamaine Ross. In the music team: Henry … Read more
American college super-coach John Calipari talks to Ben Stanley about the progress and NBA prospects of Kentucky’s new Kiwi basketball recruit Tai Wynyard. He has coached four No. 1 overall NBA Draft picks, led two different schools to three NCAA Division I Championship Finals in the last eight years, and last year he was inducted into … Read more
It’s been fun going crazy for any Steven Adams news over the last couple of weeks but the time has come to bid farewell to our national NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who will definitely lose Game 7 of the NBA’s Western Conference finals today. This Oklahoma City Thunder season has been a hell … Read more
With the NBA playoffs well underway, our very own Steven Adams is taking the world by storm with a potent mixture of talent and loveliness and, writes Katie Parker, he’s not the only one. Things are going so very well for Steven Adams. In just this past week he was deemed the third best player … Read more
The Golden State Warriors are gunning for the all-time NBA wins record, but they’ve already sewn up the title for best facial hair ever. Joseph Harper gazes upon the squad and decides ‘who warri-ore it best’. The Golden State Warriors have a chance to make history as the winningest basketball team of all time. Watching Warriors games … Read more
Madeleine Chapman attends the Chinese Easter Tournament every year and firmly believes it is the greatest sporting event on the calendar. Growing up, I would spend my Easter weekends hunting for and eating too many chocolate eggs. For the past six years I have spent my Easter weekends playing sport with and against hundreds of Chinese people. … Read more
Why are so many women’s sports played in near-empty stadiums? Madeleine Chapman suggests some big changes to bring in more fans. Over the weekend I took a bus to Tauranga to watch the first of three tournaments aimed at deciding the best women’s basketball team in New Zealand. The event was held at ASB Baypark Arena, a huge sporting complex … Read more
The Breakers are set to kick off their finals series against the Perth Wildcats at 11.30pm. The Crowd Goes Wild’s Andrew Mulligan explains why the match-up is the best rivalry in Australasian sport. The All Blacks’ and Wallabies’ rivalry has nothing on the one between the New Zealand Breakers and the Perth Wildcats. Whereas New Zealand … Read more
Duncan Greive talks to Tall Blacks guard Corey Webster, in New Orleans attending training camp with the Pelicans, about his journey from NBL exile to being on the verge of playing in the NBA. A few years ago Corey Webster was a cautionary tale, the perfect example of a talented kid who lacked the application … Read more