Not that anyone was necessarily watching at home.

The Rise of a Team

The slow build toward respectability took shape in 2005, when Paul and Liz Blackwell, the owners of a supermarket chain, bought the team. The Blackwells did not get involved to accumulate oodles of cash. (Even today, the Perth Wildcats are the only profitable team in the N.B.L.) Instead, the Blackwells viewed basketball as a form of community outreach, as a way to connect with children — especially those from single-parent homes, an important social issue in New Zealand.

The Breakers staged postpractice clinics for schoolchildren. They organized summer camps, weekend leagues and group outings to games. On the court, the team stabilized under Andrej Lemanis, who coached the Breakers to their first winning season in 2007-8 after surviving persistent calls from fans for the team to “sack him.”

“He figured out that having players from New Zealand was the team’s strength,” said Marc Hinton, an Auckland sports journalist. “If they had this Kiwi team, a brothers-in-arms sort of thing, it would always be an advantage against club teams from Australia.”

Today, the Breakers have a robust developmental program that draws on young players from New Zealand. Six of the team’s 10 current players are products of the system. The Breakers also run an academy for promising players between the ages of 14 and 19. Tai Wynyard, a 17-year-old developmental player for the Breakers, committed last month to play college basketball at Kentucky — a sign of progress if ever there was one.

The eight teams in the N.B.L. are subject to a salary cap of 1 million Australian dollars (about $783,000), spread among 10 players. The Breakers try to maximize every penny, and they seldom give up on prospects. When Corey Webster, a shooting guard, was suspended for the 2011-12 season for violating the league’s drug protocol, the Breakers sent him to China to work with a trainer. He also stocked shelves at one of the Blackwells’ supermarkets. This season, Webster is averaging a team-leading 15.4 points a game.

“We want guys who are willing to sacrifice,” Clarke, the chief executive, said.

Before joining the Breakers, Clarke had little interest in basketball. In fact, he said, he had played the game only once, while on a rugby trip to Venezuela.

“It rained one day,” he said, “so we played basketball.”

With the Breakers, Clarke entrusts those who do understand the game to advise him on personnel decisions. In some ways, he said, his ignorance is an advantage.