<image=2 align=right />The surprise return of Tony Ronaldson to the Harvey Norman NZ Breakers’ line-up in Melbourne last Saturday night has added real excitement to the team’s final home game of the season. When the Breakers tackle the Melbourne Tigers at the North Shore Entertainment Centre on Thursday night the 203cm forward will become only the second player in NBL history to tally 600 matches. Known universally as “Bear”, Ronaldson joins the legendary Andrew Gaze as the only members of the ‘600 Club’. But he is typically modest about the achievement. “It’s a lot of games,” Ronaldson says shaking his head. “But this is my job, it’s what I do for a living. “It shows my longevity in the sport. I haven’t been a flash in the pan and it will be nice to look back on it all with a degree of pride. “But, for now, it’s about what we can do here with the Breakers, starting with Thursday night’s match against the Tigers.” In his 599 NBL matches Ronaldson has scored 15.67 points per game and averaged 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists. He has averaged almost 12 points and four rebounds a game in 23 matches for the Breakers and his leadership and experience have been readily apparent in delivering almost four assists per game. No-one has won more NBL games (394, some 57 more than the next best) than Ronaldson and post-season action for the Breakers would extend his record number of play-off appearances (79 games in total, eight more than the next best). The former Australian Boomer, a double Olympian and a gold medalist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, has played in seven NBL Grand Finals and been part of two Championship-winning teams in 1992 and 1996. His remarkable milestone was supposed to occur against the Tigers in Melbourne 19 days ago, but Ronaldson aggravated an Achilles injury the game before and subsequently missed the next four matches. It is ironic that injury should delay the milestone because the Adelaide-born Ronaldson is renowned as one of the game’s great ironmen. Before his Achilles setback he had missed only 11 games to injury in 19 seasons in the NBL. Tony Ronaldson Debut: 31st March 1990 Career Highs: 36 points: vs Canberra 1/11/01 including career best 9-from-15 three-pointers Best season scoring average: 21.5 ppg in 1995 One Triple Double: vs Giants May 95 15 points, 11 assists, 12 rebounds All-Time Leaders - NBL games played: 612 – Andrew Gaze 599 – Tony Ronaldson 567 – Leroy Loggins 554 – Mark Bradtke 523 – Lanard Copeland 518 – Ray Borner 508 – Paul Rees 504 – James Crawford 494 – Brett Maher All-Time Leaders - NBL playoff games: 79 – Tony Ronaldson 71 – Brett Wheeler 69 – Ricky Grace 68 – James Crawford 64 – Mark Bradtke 64 – Paul Rees 64 – Darryl McDonald 63 – Warrick Giddey 63 – Scott Fisher Most “winningest” players in NBL history: 394 – Tony Ronaldson 337 – Leroy Loggins 332 – James Crawford 330 – Andrew Gaze 330 – Mark Bradtke 312 – Mark Davis 312 – Paul Rees 308 – Ricky Grace Ironman - Games missed: 1991 – missed 3 games during year and last 8 games attending college 2001 – missed 1 game 2002 – missed 3 games 2007 – missed 4 games 2008 – missed 4 games