Tom Abercrombie is New Zealand basketball’s golden boy. He’s good looking, nearly 2m tall (6ft 6in) and humble, despite pulling off the game-saving block which secured the Breakers’ championship win against the Perth Wildcats last month. No wonder his girlfriend gets hate mail.
“Yeah, there are a lot of jealous girls who send me hate messages on Twitter!” grins Monique-Raquel Shaw (21) with a sideways look at Tom (24), who is burying his head in his hands.
But she’s not quite a longsuffering “wag” yet – the vertically blessed couple have only been going out for five months. Monique, a great match for Tom at 1.8m tall (6ft), is quickly learning what it’s like to date the Breakers’ star player and has already been dubbed Tom’s “good luck charm”.
“The first time she came to a home game, I had the best game of the season – I scored 33 points. So, I knew I was on to something good,” says Tom. The two met through mutual friends at an Auckland pub and say there was instantly a shared attraction – that, and Monique could look Tom in the eye without a stepladder. However, Monique had no idea who Tom was, something he says he’s thankful for.
“I liked that she didn’t have a clue who I was. It’s been good fun teaching her about the game. Now, she’s always able to give me her two cents after each match!” laughs Tom. When injury struck, Monique helped Tom get through one of the toughest periods of his life. Battling a rolled ankle that saw him benched, Tom watched his team play the final games largely without him.
“I was so gutted and frustrated,” says Tom. “Once I had a couple of days to settle down and realise it wasn’t as bad as I thought, I was able to accept it a little more. “It did make me really stressed out. I’d walk down the street and hundreds of people would ask me how my ankle was. I was always coming home grumpy, but Monique managed to put a smile on my face and support me through it. I’m so lucky.”
For Monique, who had never watched a basketball game before she met Tom, it meant learning how to support him through his frustration. “I kept talking to him and asking what I could do to help. He needed someone to talk to and say whatever he wanted. It was hard for him,” she says.
“People only see him on the court when he tries to play – they don’t see the effort and work he puts in, the icing, the resting, him waking up every day and being disappointed that it’s not getting better. It was really tough, seeing the other side of it. “
Despite his ankle being nowhere near healed, Tom doesn’t regret playing in the final two games of the series – especially after his game-saving block of a Perth Wildcats player’s shot with seconds left on the clock.
“[The ankle] was getting a lot worse as the game went on, but those last few minutes especially, it was such a blur,” he says. “I didn’t even know what the score was when I went up to block that shot, I mean, I should have known these things, but I knew it was close!” he laughs.
Now, the Breakers player is looking forward to a few weeks of downtime before he prepares for the Tall Blacks’ Olympic qualifying matches in June. “I was relieved when it was all over to be honest. I was so stressed out,” says Tom. “When we won, I was so excited and pumped, but I was glad to have it all done.”
Before the Olympics, the pair are embracing Tom’s support from Breakers fans, including Monique’s 90-year-old grandma. “I see people everywhere on the North Shore wearing my jersey. It’s really an amazing feeling,” says Tom.
Before basketball fever begins again in June, the loved-up pair are setting aside time for themselves “Our relationship is a fairly new thing and we’ve really enjoyed it,” Tom smiles. “It’s already had its challenges, but it’s only made us stronger. It’s been a fantastic five months!”
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