Thomas Iain Abercrombie (born 5 July 1987) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the

New Zealand Breakers The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Sky Sport Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at ...

of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL). A product of

Westlake Boys High School Westlake Boys High School is a state secondary school for boys located in Forrest Hill, Auckland, New Zealand. The school opened in 1962, when Westlake High School (opened 1958) split into Westlake Girls High School on the existing site and We ...

in Auckland, Abercrombie had a short-lived college basketball stint with

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

before debuting in the Australian NBL in 2008 with the Breakers. In 2011, he won his first NBL championship and earned Grand Final MVP honours. He went on to win three more championships in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Abercrombie is the Breakers' all-time leading scorer and has the most 3-pointers in club history. Abercrombie has also played four seasons in the New Zealand NBL, and has had stints aboard in France, Spain and Turkey.

Early life and junior career

Born and raised in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about It ...

, New Zealand, Abercrombie attended

and played four years of school

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. In 2005, he captained the basketball team to the title at the Secondary School National Championships. That year, he also served as the school's deputy head boy and was captain of the volleyball team. As a junior, Abercrombie played for the North Harbour Basketball Association and represented New Zealand with the Junior Tall Blacks. In November 2005, Abercrombie accepted a scholarship deal with

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant univer ...

. He spent two seasons with the

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

, redshirting his freshman season in 2006–07 before seeing action in 12 games in 2007–08.

Professional career

New Zealand Breakers

After returning home following his college stint, Abercrombie joined the

in the Australian NBL as a development player for the 2008–09 season. He played 13 games in his first season with the Breakers, and was elevated to the full squad for the 2009–10 season. He missed four games in the back half of the season with an ankle injury. In the 2010–11 season, Abercrombie helped the Breakers reach their first ever grand final series, where they defeated the Cairns Taipans 2–1 to win their maiden NBL championship. He was subsequently named the Grand Final MVP. Abercrombie went on to win three more championships with the Breakers in 2012, 2013 and 2015. In January 2016, Abercrombie passed

Kirk Penney Kirk Samuel Penney (born 23 November 1980) is a New Zealand professional basketball player. He played four years of college basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers between 1999 and 2003, where he was twice named first-team all-conference and an all ...

as the club's all-time leading scorer. Due to Penney's return to the club for two seasons, Abercrombie had to pass him again in October 2018 to reach 3227 points in 276 games. In February 2019, he played his 300th NBL game. In October 2019, Abercrombie committed to the Breakers until the end of the 2021–22 season. In 2019–20, Abercrombie became the second player in NBL history (after Daniel Kickert in 2016–17 and 2017–18) to join the exclusive

50–40–90 club The 50–40–90 club is an informal statistic used to rate players as excellent shooters in the National Basketball Association (NBA), NBA G League, and Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). It requires a player to achieve the criteri ...

. Abercrombie averaged 12.1 points per game for the season while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, 46.5 percent from three-point range and 90.5 percent from the free throw line. In April 2021, Abercrombie played his 355th game for the Breakers, surpassing

Mika Vukona Mika John Vukona (born 13 May 1982) is a Fijian-born New Zealand former professional basketball player. Between 2003 and 2018, he spent 13 seasons with the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian NBL and helped them win four championships. He wa ...

(354) to become the franchise's all-time games played leader. He also passed Kirk Penney (489) as the club's all-time leader in 3-pointers made. Abercrombie missed most of the

2021–22 NBL season The 2021–22 NBL season was the 44th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams are contesting in the 2021–22 season, which commenced on 3 December 2021. Australian broadcast rights to the ...

with a side strain and missed the first month of the

2022–23 NBL season The 2022–23 NBL season was the 45th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2022–23 season. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by ESPN in the second sea ...

after suffering a torn retina which required emergency surgery.

New Zealand NBL

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

, Abercrombie debuted in the New Zealand NBL with the

Waikato Pistons The Waikato Pistons were a New Zealand basketball team based in Hamilton. The Pistons competed in the National Basketball League (NBL) and played their home games at Hamilton Boys' High School. After sitting out the 2012 NBL season, the Piston ...

. He helped the Pistons win the championship while claiming Rookie of the Year and All-Star Five honours. He continued on with the Pistons in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...

and earned All-Star Five honours again while helping the Pistons make a second consecutive grand final appearance. He returned to the Pistons for a third season in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

and once again earned All-Star Five honours. In

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Abercrombie played half a season with the

Wellington Saints The Wellington Saints are a New Zealand basketball team based in Wellington. The Saints compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Bank Arena. Team history The Wellington Saints were founded in 1981. In 1 ...

and helped them win a championship while claiming Grand Final MVP honours.

Overseas stints

During the 2013 NBL off-season, Abercrombie took part in mini-camp opportunities with NBA teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Milwaukee Bucks,

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

and Dallas Mavericks. He then joined the Phoenix Suns for the

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

. Following the

2013–14 NBL season The 2013–14 NBL season was the 36th season of competition since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams contested the league. The regular season was played between 10 October 2013 and 23 March 2014, and was followed by a post-season f ...

, Abercrombie had a stint in France with

ASVEL Basket ASVEL Basket, commonly known as ASVEL or sometimes as ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne, and also known as LDLC ASVEL for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional basketball team that is located in the city of Villeurbanne, which is a suburb of Lyo ...

. He went on to have similar post-NBL season stints the following three years, playing for

Gipuzkoa Basket Donosti Gipuzkoa Basket 2001 Saskibaloi Kirol Elkartea S.A.D., commonly known as Gipuzkoa Basket and as Acunsa GBC for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain. The team plays in the LEB Oro. ...

in Spain in 2015, and then having two stints in Turkey with Pınar Karşıyaka (2016) and Büyükçekmece Basketbol (2017).

National team career

Abercrombie made his debut for the Tall Blacks in 2006. In 2007, he represented New Zealand at the

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

. He has been a regular with the Tall Blacks since 2009. In 2018, he won a bronze medal at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

. In 2019, he played at the

FIBA World Cup The FIBA Basketball World Cup, also known as the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010 known as the FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball competition contested by the senior men's nat ...

Personal

Abercrombie is the son of Colin and Judy. He is the oldest of three children, with brother Hayden and sister Nicola. Abercrombie and his wife Monique have three children. Abercrombie studied a Bachelor of Science at Massey University.Take 40: Tom Abercrombie
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References

External links

New Zealand Breakers player profileLNB.fr profileNBL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abercrombie, Thomas 1987 births Living people ASVEL Basket players Basketball players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Büyükçekmece Basketbol players Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in basketball Gipuzkoa Basket players Karşıyaka basketball players Liga ACB players New Zealand men's basketball players New Zealand Breakers players New Zealand expatriate basketball people in France New Zealand expatriate basketball people in Spain New Zealand expatriate basketball people in the United States New Zealand expatriate basketball people in Turkey People educated at Westlake Boys High School Shooting guards Small forwards Basketball players from Auckland Waikato Pistons players Washington State Cougars men's basketball players Wellington Saints players 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup players 2010 FIBA World Championship players 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup players