Russell Westbrook Fronts BNZ Basketball Coaching Campaign

BNZ is tackling basketball's biggest bottleneck -- a critical shortage of community coaches.

Basketball is New Zealand's fastest-growing sport, but that growth has outpaced the supply of coaches to match it. BNZ is tackling the shortfall head-on, with a commitment to reach 20,000 community coaches, so every kid who wants to play can.

It's the latest chapter in a partnership with Basketball New Zealand that began with BNZ's sponsorship of the BNZ Kiwi Hoops programme -- which resulted in an unimpressed Russell Westbrook asking BNZ to stop, fearing those kids would grow up to dunk on him.

Since then, more than 90,000 kids have been on court through BNZ Kiwi Hoops, and the partnership with Basketball New Zealand was recently awarded Commercial Partnership of the Year at the New Zealand Sport and Recreation Awards.

BNZ GM marketing and design, Amy Phillips, said, "Basketball's popularity continues to grow at a rapid pace, and the next challenge is building the coaching bench so that our tamariki have access to the sport.

“There's a generational barrier at play. A lot of us grew up playing rugby, netball, or cricket, and there's a perception that you need to have played basketball in order to coach it. With the tools and resources we’re making available alongside Basketball New Zealand, you don’t need to be a baller to be a great coach”.

In a campaign that reflects BNZ’s commitment, NBA legend Russell Westbrook still isn’t impressed.

Having already told BNZ to stay in its lane once, Russell returns to find the bank hasn't listened -- it's invested further. In the new campaign, Russell appears to enthusiastically support BNZ's coaching commitment, but the endorsement is laced with sarcasm.

"Russell knows better than most what New Zealanders are capable of when they throw their full weight behind basketball," said Hadleigh Sinclair, Colenso BBDO group creative director.

"So, when BNZ decided to invest even more in the game by helping more New Zealanders realise they've got what it takes to coach, it felt only right to check back in and see what he thought."

The integrated campaign is live across TV, cinema, out-of-home, social, digital, owned, and internal channels.