Hyrum Harris: Wellington Saints player on his return to the team following a season in Japan

2025 championship-winning captain Hyrum Harris is returning to the Wellington Saints.

Harris re-joins the NBL reigning champions for the rest of their title defence, after a season with the Kanazawa Sumuraiz in Japan.

He joined Adam Cooper to discuss his return.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All the scores, all the stories, more questions, more scrutiny.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's the All Sport Breakfast with Adam Cooper the Ustorg SAB.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Twenty nine Past eight tier on the All Sports Breakfast. Well,
this is pretty exciting the Saints. The Wellington Saints basketballers
have given us the privilege of announcing their latest signing
to join the roster in the National Basketball League. It'll
be a name familiar to you. Let's announce who's returning
to the Wellington Saints, starting with hopefully tomorrow's game against Otago. Yes, well,

(00:34):
after a season in the Japan B League with the
Knasawa Summarrise, it's great to announce that the Wellington Saints
have been boosted with the return of last season's captain
that led the Saints to another NBL title. Hiram Harris
will be back in Saints colors, hopefully in time for

(00:55):
tomorrow's match against Otago. Pairing pending at clearance from fever.
We're lucky enough to be joined now by Hiram Harris him.
Thanks for your time, welcome back to Wellington. Great weather
to welcome you back. We've had these last couple of days. Yeah,
big season in Japan for you tell us about your
journey to get back here for the Saints.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Adam. So, yeah, I
just come off my season in Japan, playing over there
for nine months.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Happy to be back in Wellington.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I'm excited to be putting on the same jersey again
and looking forward to the last I'm not sure how
many games are left, but looking forward to the final
stretch and seeing how we go on finals.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah. Great.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Now, if I remember right, you left for Japan almost
straight away after you won the NBL last year, and
you know, only just coming back. They notoriously have some
long seasons, as you say, nine months. So have you
had a break at all?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I mean the season finished end of April and
I've after that. I took some time off to go
spend some time with family overseason, so that's always wouldn't
And now obviously I've had a bit of time off
and starting to get it she feeding in.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
So yeah, I'm excited to be back.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
You would have obviously had a choice not to come
back as well though, and maybe have even more downtime.
But what's driven you to return to the Saints for
the rest of this campaign?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, a lot of things. But one thing Jordan Mills
is good at is he helps out so much off
court that he makes the lifestyle here so easier. Obviously,
like we just touched on it, a hectic fifty two
games plus playoffs in Japan long season.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
It's good to know that.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
You know, you can always come here and be comfortable,
and obviously like the on court stuff as well. We
have amazing fans, we have a great home atmosphere and
you know, obviously winning last year, but we want to
try and protect that and see how how many times
we can. But you know, it is what of us.
I'm here to a dollar is to win another one.
But we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
He's more than fifty games in a season in Japan.
Was was it tough getting through such a long campaign?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean it was different.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Like I think the most games we play here in
New Zealand is like twenty four games maybe or around
that number.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
So I had to definitely take care of my body a.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Bit more and just kind of learning how my body
will function in the long season. But you know, I
think I only missed like four games, so I thought
I did all right, was what I learned that season.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
A lot of people across all sports harum talk highly
of going overseas getting that experience of something a bit different.
What benefits did you get from the season in Japan,
both on and off the court.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Look, it's a lot of differences over there comput to hear,
a lot of lessons learned, especially on court. But yeah,
I kind of went over there with the thought in
mind that I want to experience a different culture. I
want to experience basketball in some way other than New
Zealand and Australia. And I think I actually got what

(03:57):
I wanted out of it, which is the main thing.
But there was a lot of differences, both lifestyle and
on court, but it was good.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
I really enjoyed my time. Yeah. Great.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
You've been back training with the Saints the last few days.
I know you're hoping to get the all clear from
fever to be able to play tomorrow. What's it like
joining a team though during the season the guy's a
fourth couple of good wins the last couple of weeks,
So integrating yourself back into the team, how do you
go about that?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Like this is honestly a first for me too, because
normally I'll go from Australia to New Zealand, back to Australia,
back to New Zealand, and I'm always making preseason or
if not, maybe miss the first game.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
But this is all a learning experience for me.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Too, like seeing how I can plot myself in without
like overstepping or over doing too much. But at the
end of the day, we just we just want to win,
and I think that's something we all have in common
as we want to win. So I think once we
if we can just turne into that will be sweet.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
The last few seasons, but especially last year, Saints fans
have got to know you as the guy who's the warrior.
You fight for every ball, every opportunity. Anything you were
different from your game from your time in Japan that
fans might notice when you run out at TSP Arena
hopefully tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I mean, I just do whatever I could to try
and win a game, so that's never going to change,
and was going to go out there and try and
win and whatever that looks like is what it looks like.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
And despite the long season in Japan, has this been
something you've been looking forward to for a while? Getting
back for the title defense, getting to run out in
front of the Saints Fino again in the Saints sing.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Of course, I mean I said it's such a I
mean Wellington Saints. We have the best home crowd, we
have the best atmosphere, we have the best fans.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Like, it's always good to want. It's easy to want
to come back to that. Sorry.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
So yeah, I've had actually fee for like the last
two three weeks anyway.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
So.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Nice and based on what you've seen of the games,
based on what you've seen at training since linking back
up fourth on the ladder at the moment the Saints team,
how competitive can you be? Do you think come crunch
time in this life a month or so leading up
to the playoffs, Oh, I.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Think definitely, Like we have the team to get the
job done. But I think it's just going to be
a matter of can we find our stride come final time.
I think that's the scariest thing. A part about this
league is like, as long as you're ready to go
come end of July early August, it could be anyone's championship.
But our goal is to repeat And yeah, that's that's

(06:27):
what we're going to aim for.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, great, and you hope he's get all signed off
for tomorrow's game against Otaco.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, hopefully it's not in my hands. So whoever who
was that feeble or whoever can help out there, just
try your best.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I guess.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, hopefully they're listening and they can they can do
their magic. Highm Hey, thanks for chatting, Mate's so good
to have you back in Wellington. Big boost to the
Saints and no fans will be very excited to see
you back, mate, So thanks for chatting and go well.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Thanks Adam, thanks for having me.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
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