BIO: Phillip Charles George “Phill” Jones is best known for his time spent with the Nelson Giants in the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL).

The two-time Olympian has scored more points in the New Zealand NBL than any other Kiwi player and is second overall in league scoring history.

In 2004, he ranked second among all points scorers at the Athens Olympics.

In 2016, he became the first player in New Zealand NBL history to reach 400 games.

Born in Christchurch, Jones grew up in Reefton, where he attended Inangahua College. In 1992, Jones moved to Nelson to play high school basketball at Nelson College.

FAMILY: Jones is the son of John and Carol Jones, and has a brother named Johnno. He and his wife Kat have three children. His son Hayden debuted with the Nelson Giants in 2023 as a 16-year-old.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Phill Jones made his NBL debut with the New Zealand Breakers at 29 years of age. He scored 20 points in his first game.

In March 2003, Three Waikato businessmen, Michael Redman, Dallas Fisher and Keith Ward, acquired a NBL licence for a team based in New Zealand. The inaugural Breakers roster was built from the core playing group of New Zealand’s national team, which had finished in fourth place at the FIBA World Championships six months prior.

Phill Jones, who had been the ‘Tall Blacks’ leading scorer (18.2 ppg) at the World Champs, Paul Henare, Dillon Boucher, Paora Winitana and Pero Cameron (who was named team captain) formed the Breakers’ local core. The roster was then filled out with up and coming New Zealand talent like Aaron Olsen and Lindsey Tait and some Australian NBL veterans like Ben Melmeth and Brad Williams to add leadership. Lastly, Casey Frank, a long-time import in the New Zealand national league, was signed as the team’s second import.

Jeff Green was implemented as the team’s first coach and, despite the Breakers being picked by many to finish dead last, they pulled out a win in their very first NBL game against Adelaide (111-110).

After initial success, the Breakers went on to lose ten of their next eleven games (proving the pundits right) to languish near the bottom of the NBL ladder for the remainder of the season.

Twelve games into the season (2-10), Green was fired and succeeded by the team’s assistant coach Frank Arsego, who had also headed up the basketball program at the Australian Institute of Sport for the past five years. Arsego would then bring in Mike Chappell (22.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists), who finished top five in the league in both points and three-point shooting while playing in Canberra the season before. Both Casey Frank and Brad Williams would be released to make way for Chappell, who went on to lead the team in scoring and named Breakers club MVP.

Chappell’s presence delivered a mid-season resurgence where a five game winning streak towards the end of the season gave the Breakers a realistic shot of qualifying for the playoffs. Needing to win both of their final games in the final round to claim a playoff berth, the Breakers instead went winless and finished in tenth place (12–21). Jones (13.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steals) and Ben Melmeth (13.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, and 2.2 assists) finished as the best of the team’s local talent.

2007/08
During the 2007/08 season, Jones returned to the Breakers after three seasons spent in Europe. Jones averaged 14.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists and was a part of the Breakers squad that finished in seventh place (16-14).

2008/09
After the Brisbane Bullets fell into financial hardship and withdrew from the league, head coach Andrej Lemanis recruited free agent pair CJ Bruton (two-year deal) and former Breaker Dillon Boucher (three-year deal) to play for the Breakers with the explicit intentions to win a championship that season.

‘The Breakers have proved they’re a playoff team and I’d like to help take them up to that next level,’ Bruton said upon signing with New Zealand.

‘I’ve seen the Breakers change their team and their culture to become more competitive. They’re serious about becoming number one and I want to be a part of New Zealand’s first championship. You don’t play this sport just to be in it.’

The duo joined the existing roster of Paul Henare, Kirk Penney, Phill Jones, Oscar Forman, Tony Ronaldson and Tim Behrendorff. The Breakers later signed import Rick Rickert to finalise their roster.

Bruton’s signing gave the Breakers’ stability and direction at the point guard position, something the Breakers had always been missing. New Zealand would play with only one import this season, being led by Bruton (16.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 1.7 steals ) and sharp-shooting Penney (24.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists) who would be selected to the All-NBL First Team. Penney would also make history by becoming the first New Zealand born player to win NBL MVP, and Phill Jones was voted the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.

With 14 games left in the season and the Breakers on top of the ladder (15-4), Bruton suffered a high-ankle sprain in late December, which saw the team stumble through January, losing eight of their next nine games.

Heading into the playoffs with a win in their last game regular season game, the Breakers finished with a 18–12 record, setting the team up with their first ever home playoff game. New Zealand went on to win their elimination playoff, routing Adelaide (131–101) to set up a best-of-three semi final series with the defending champions Melbourne. In their first-ever semi finals appearance, the Breakers were beaten 2–0.

Jones appeared in 32 games for New Zealand, averaging 14.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.4 assists.

CAIRNS TAIPANS
2009/10
In 2009/10, Jones averaged 11.6 points and 3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, as the Taipans finished in seventh place (11-17).

2010/11
After finishing one loss away from the wooden spoon in 2010, the Taipans underwent a major rehaul of their roster. While the core group of Ian Crosswhite, Dusty Rychart, Aaron Grabau and captain Phill Jones remained, Cairns replaced the rest of last year’s roster. Alex Loughton, the team’s major signing, returned to Australia after a season spent in Spain. Daniel Dillon, who had spent the past season in the state league, signed on as the Snake’s backup point guard, and imports Ayinde Ubaka and Ron Dorsey replaced Julien Mills and Rich Melzer.

After a modest start to the season, starting with one win from the first three games of the season, the Taipans became the surprise packed of the year. The team won five in a row and jumped from 7th place in round three to 2nd place by round nine.

A well-balanced attack from Cairns saw Ubaka (13.9 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists), Dorsey (13.1 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.2 assists), Loughton (11.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists) and Crosswhite (11.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists) all score in double figures.

The Taipans finished the season on a four-game winning streak and in third place (16–12).

The semi finals saw them lose to Townsville in the opening game of the series before winning games two and three to advance through to the Grand Final series for the first time in franchise history.

Facing off against New Zealand, Cairns suffered a thrashing in the series opener (85–67) in Auckland before returning to Cairns for Game 2. There, the Taipans looked set for a three-point win in regulation before a three-pointer from Breakers guard CJ Bruton in the dying seconds sent the match into overtime. However, not to be outdone, five minutes later, Dorsey returned the favour, wiping out the Breakers’ three-point lead with a miraculous long-range buzzer beater which saw the first game in NBL history head into double overtime. With momentum now on their side, the Taipans took home a nail-biting double-overtime win (85–81) which sent the series back to New Zealand for a third game.

The Taipans lacked the same spark in game three, with import pair Ubaka and Dorsey shooting 4-of-26 between them and the Breakers winning comfortably by 18 points (71–53).

This season, Jones production had really started to decline, he finished with averages of 6.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.4 assists across 32 games and was not offered a contract for next season.

Phill Jones played five seasons in the NBL, playing for both the New Zealand Breakers and the Cairns Taipans. He averaged 12.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 157 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (833 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.