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Find your frequencyThe path that made Thomas Abercrombie a Kiwi basketball great
Henry Lee •  October 14th, 2026 11:19 am
Thomas Abercrombie | Photo: Daniel Carson/Photosport
Kiwi basketball legend Thomas Abercrombie has reflected on his illustrious NBL career with the New Zealand Breakers.
Abercrombie, 39, was born and raised in Takapuna and went on to make a staggering 429 appearances for the Auckland-based NBL franchise, where he played pivotal roles in the club claiming four championships.
The Washington State forward also took overseas opportunities during his near two-decade-long career, training with the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks, and the Phoenix Suns.
Abercrombie also played in France for ASVEL Basket, Spain for Gipuzkoa Basket, and Turkey for Pınar Karşıyaka and Büyükçekmece Basketbol.
Tom Abercrombie celebrates a clutch three pointer | Photo: Photosport
Joining Millsy & Guy for a long-form feature interview, Abercrombie detailed how his basketball career kickstarted from an unexpected growth spurt while attending Westlake Boys High School in Auckland.
"I wasn't the tallest in my class through primary school and stuff, but I shot up massively in the first couple of years of high school," Abercrombie said.
"I played everything; all the other sports kind of fell by the wayside as I had that growth spurt and kind of just found myself.
Fast-forward to Abercrombie's Washington State days, the Kiwi opened up on the battle for court time with now star and four-time NBA champion Klay Thompson.
"He came and took my spot, unfortunately," he explained.
"I bided my time in my first year. I redshirted my first year, second year, sat on the bench and then that third year, ready to make that big leap up, (then) in comes a guy named Klay who had a pretty good reputation."
Klay Thompson | Photo: Icon Sportswire/Photosport
It was a crossroads where Abercrombie contemplated everything.
"Happy talking about it now, obviously he's gone on to do some pretty great things and he was an awesome dude to hang out with for a little bit, but there was a bit of a crossroads in my career.
"I remember sitting down with the coach at the time and him talking to me and saying, 'look, we've got this guy coming in next year. He's pretty good. He's probably going to play a fair bit. Your role is probably not going to change. You're going to sit on the bench again.'
"Back in those days, you couldn't just transfer to a different university in div one, you had to sit out a year if you wanted to do that. You couldn't hop in the transfer portal like you can now.
"By that point, I was ready to come home. I was pretty homesick and wasn't really enjoying my basketball, so the decision was kind of made for me and everything obviously worked out for the best."
Listen to the full interview below:
