BIO: Tim Behrendorff was born in Gold Coast (QLD) where he attended Trinity Lutheran College. As a junior, Behrendorff began playing basketball with the Gold Coast basketball program and is considered by many to be the best big man the Gold Coast ever produced.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Tim Behrendorff made his NBL debut with the Cairns Taipans at 22 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

In his first NBL season Behrendorff averaged 0.7 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.2 assists as the Taipans finished in tenth place (11-21).

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS
2005/06
With the Breakers still searching for their first winning season, they chose not to re-sign Mike Chappell, the Breakers’ leading scorer from the past two seasons and appointed a new head coach Andrej Lemanis. Lemanis had played in the NBL during the 1980s and 1990s and spent the previous five seasons as a assistant coach with the Townsville Crocodiles.

Lemanis inherited a Breakers squad who had seen both its national team players, Pero Cameron (Gold Coast) and Dillon Boucher (Perth), leave for better opportunities on other NBL team’s.

Lemanis looked to build around its young turning core group, which included Aaron Olsen, Ben Pepper, Lindsay Tait and Paul Henare, who was named team captain with the departure of co-captain Pero Cameron.

Rugged defender Ben Thompson and New Zealand born Adrian Majstrovich (both via Perth) were added to the roster, as was the import duo of Rich Melzer and Brant Bailey.

The Breakers started the season poorly (1-5) and quickly made the decision to replace Bailey (18.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists) with Brian Green (18.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals).

Melzer (18.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) would lead New Zealand in scoring while the Breakers continued to see strong development from young gun Aaron Olson (17.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists) and Ben Pepper (14.6 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks) was a force inside the paint. Behrendorff averaged 3.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.2 assists, appearing in 25 of the Breakers’ games.

Lemanis’ first season in charge was not particularly memorable. During the season, the Breakers endured a team-worst eleven straight losses, but after making the personnel changes, the team split their final twelve games of the season and finished the regular season tenth out of eleven team’s (9-23).

2006/07
The 2006/07 season saw Behrendorff average 3.8 points, 3 rebounds, and 0.5 assists and play a key role in helping the Breakers to a tenth place finish in the regular season with a 11-22 record.

2007/08
During the 2007/08 season Behrendorff averaged 3.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.4 assists and helped the Breakers finish the regular season 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.

Behrendorff appearing in 32 games for the season, averaging 4.0 points, 2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists.

WOLLONGONG HAWKS
2009/10
In February 2009, the Hawks ownership group declared the team would not be able to join the revamped league in 2009/10 on financial grounds. Mat Campbell, who was the team captain and still a active player, started the “Save the Hawks” fundraising campaign, which generated the total amount required by the club to continue. Campbell and his small team raised funds via donations from the Illawarra community, acquiring naming rights sponsor ahm Health Insurance and a bank guarantee provided by Indian mining magnate Mr Arun Jagatramka from Gujarat NRE. A not-for-profit community-based company formed as Wollongong Hawks Basketball Limited was established to operate the Hawks into the future.

A number of changes occurred as a result of the ownership change. Coach Brendan Joyce was replaced with former Hawks star Gordie McLeod, and the team moved on from imports Kavossy Franklin and Dusty Rychart, replacing them with Tywain McKee and David Gruber.

Mckee (17.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals) would lead the team in scoring, but after suffering two stress fractures in his lower back, Mckee (17.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 steals) was shut down for the season with Wollongong hovering around the middle of the ladder (11-10). Journeyman guard Luke Martin for the remaining 13 games of the season and the Hawks were forced to rely on their local talent for their playoff run.

Losing McKee gave Illawarra a balanced attack, with nine players all averaging 18 minutes or more per game. Cam Tragardh (14.7 points, 5.4 rebounds) would step up and lead the team in scoring after losing McKee, while Glen Saville (10.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.3 steals), team captain Campbell (10.3 points and 3.0) and Larry Davidson (9.7 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 steals), who would be voted the Hawks club MVP, led a late-season charge that saw Illawarra finish with five wins in their last seven games.

In one of the closest seasons in NBL history, the Hawks finished in a three-way tie for second place, with Townsville and Gold Coast all finishing the regular season with the same record (16-12). Head-to-head victories saw the Hawks (5-3) claim the second seed, Crocodiles (4-4) finish third, and Gold Coast Blaze (3-5) take the final playoff spot.

With the series heading back to Wollongong, the Hawks led game three from start to finish and behind a 12-point win (88-76), they were heading back to the Grand Final for the first time since 2001.

Illawarra faced off against first-placed Perth (17-11), and thanks to a all-round performance from guard Kevin Lisch (15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 1 block), the Wildcat’s came away with the win (75-64). In game two, the Hawks evened the series (1-1), locking Lisch down (11 points) and riding a huge offensive effort from Cam Tragardh (28 points), who barely missed, hitting 12 of his 20 shots.

The deciding game three would return to Perth, where the Wildcats found themselves down by as many as 11 points in the second quarter. Another huge game from Lisch (29 points, including 5 of 9 from three) allowed the Wildcat’s to defeat the Hawks comfortably (96-72), delivering the Wildcats’ their fifth NBL Championship. Kevin Lisch was named Finals MVP after averaging 18 points and 4 rebounds over the three games.

Behrendorff appeared in 30 games for the season, averaging 2.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.3 assists.

2010/11
In 2010/11,Behrendorff averaged 3.5 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 0.1 assist as Wollongong finished in fifth place (15-13) and failed to qualfiy for the playoffs. The team was led by import Gary Ervin who after averaging 20.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 4.5 assists was subsequently named MVP of the league, becoming the first Hawk to win the award since Mike Jones in 1981.

Tim Behrendorff played seven seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Cairns Taipans, New Zealand Breakers and Wollongong Hawks. He averaged 3.1 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 191 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (815 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.