Bullets' Owner Breaks Silence

Brisbane Bullets’ owner Jason Levien has had enough, and says he’s stepping in to save his struggling club from further turmoil.

The Bullets have been in crisis in NBL23 and have stumbled to a 4-11 record while undergoing a dramatic coaching merry-go-round.

James Duncan started the season as head coach but was let go in November, leading to Sam Mackinnon becoming the interim coach. Mackinnon’s stint lasted just four games before Greg Vanderjagt took over.

With reports of player angst and tensions running high in the front office, Brisbane has fallen well short of the high expectations set largely thanks to the off-season signings of Aron Baynes and Tyler Johnson.

Despite owning the club, Levien says he and business partner Jake Silverstein haven’t had a proactive role in the decision making process but that’s all about to change.

“For the last several years I've been quite hands off in my role, and even ownership collectively has been and what's happened is I've decided to assume a more prominent role, a more active role in the organisation along with my partner, Jake Silverstein, and the ownership group collectively,” Levien told The Huddle podcast.

“We want to drive home a vision for the club that we think is really possible and something that we can achieve. So this is sort of the beginning of ownership being more proactive and being more involved. That doesn't just include me, that includes my partners as well.

“I want to be clear up until this conversation, even the last week or two, I've been very hands off.

“I've been focused on my other businesses, I've been waiting for Brisbane to grow, I've been on the outside looking in, I wasn't involved in the coaching decisions up until now. I wasn't really involved in the player decisions except at a very, very high level until now.

“Where things are going on the basketball side now and what we've seen in the first part of this season, Jake and I have decided that maybe it’s time for us to get more involved, for the first time, and sort of figure out where we could put our fingerprints on the organisation around the team.”

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Levien defended CEO, Peter McLennan, and has praised the job he has done off the court while saying standards will be driven higher on the court.

“I think Peter’s doing a fantastic job building this organisation,” Levien said.

“He's driven real change with his leadership and that is going to pay huge dividends for the Bullets for the next decade.

“I think on the basketball side, while we've been hands off, I think things have gone off the rails a bit, and they haven't reached our level of expectations. We want the Bullets to compete for championships, we want to be in the playoffs every year.”

The first big decision for Levien will be appointing a new, permanent head coach.

“We want to be really thoughtful about it,” Levien said.

“When we engage and decide who is going to be the long term fit to be our head coach, and certainly Greg is someone that we're in discussion with to do that, we're looking around saying, where do we want the Bullets to go?

“What are the next three to five years going to look like, how do we build the right identity on the court and the right belief and the right culture? Where's the leadership to do that?

“That's what management is talking about. Management is talking to ownership about that. That’s the process to really try to get that decision right.”