BIO: Hayden Allen was born in Dunedin, Otago (New Zealand).

NBL EXPERIENCE

Hayden Allen made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 24 years of age. He scored two points in his first game.

The Breakers entered their second NBL season looking to improve on their tenth-place finish in their first year during their debut season. The Breakers moved Frank Arsego, who had replaced Jeff Green mid-season, into a permanent position as the team’s head coach. The next move was locking in the Breakers’ leading scorer and MVP from the previous season, Mike Chappell, and replacing import Casey Frank with Shawn Redhage, who had been dominating the state league (SEABL).

Ben Melmeth would return to his hometown of Newcastle to play for the Hunter Pirates. He was replaced with fellow Aussie big man Ben Pepper, whose former team, the Victoria Giants, had vacated the league due to financial issues.

To begin the season, Paul Henare was made co-captain, alongside last year’s ‘skipper’ Pero Cameron, and despite falling short in their opening game (a re-match of the team’s first ever game against Adelaide, which they lost 94-106) they started the season by splitting the first games six games and sit within the middle of the were pack with a 3-3 record.

Although Redhage (12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists) made a impressive start to the season, a form slump in November, which saw the team lose six of its seven games, led to Redhage’s court time being reduced and eventually his release after 13 games.

While Redhage would go on to sign with Perth and become one of the NBL’s all-time greats, his replacement came in the form of Marcus Timmons (9.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.5 steals). A clear mistake had been made there, however, as shortly after taking the court, it was clear Timmons was no longer the player he was back when he joined the Melbourne Tigers mid-season in 1997 and led them to a championship.

Chappell (18 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists) would lead the team in scoring for a second consecutive season, while Aaron Olson would boost his scoring from 10.8 points per game to 15.5 points per game and win the club’s MVP award at the end of the season.

Allen appeared in 2 games and averaged 1 points, 0.5 rebounds, and 0 assists, while the Breakers finished in eleventh place (9-23), failing to improve on their debut season.

SINGAPORE SLINGERS
2007/08
Allen returned to the NBL in 2007, signed on with the cash-strapped Slingers during their second year in the league. Allen averaged 5.3 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.1 assists but with the team failing to invest the same amount of money during the team’s second year as they did in the first season, the roster struggled to be competitive and finished with a dismal record (6-24). Singapore withdrew the following season due to financial reasons.

Hayden Allen played two seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Singapore Slingers. He averaged 4.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1 assists in 25 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (827 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.