Goorjian: 'This will be my last coaching job'

Brian Goorjian has returned to the NBL with the Sydney Kings, and he’s confirmed his new posting will likely be the last of his career.

Goorjian started his coaching career 36 years ago with the Eastside Spectres, and has since become a legend of the Australian basketball coaching scene. He’s won six titles, six Coach of the Year awards, was the first foreign-born Boomers coach, and led the men’s national team to the first medal in program history.

Now 70 years old, Goorjian has already cemented his legacy as one of the greatest coaches in NBL history, and says while the Kings will almost certainly be his last post, he’s not locked in to only seeing out the initial three years of his contract.

“It’s an open-book in the form - I hope it’s ten years and I hope I last that long, but I really don’t plan on bouncing,” Goorjian said.

“I’ve done the overseas and I had that dream of the EASL and that’s why I left, to make Australia part of that. Now with that finishing up and coming back, this is my last one and I want to finish a King.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be five years, or ten years, or three years, or whatever. I’ll know when it’s done and right now, I have huge energy and I want to finish my coaching as a King.

“I keep saying the three-peat was great, but it’s the future, it’s what’s next. That’s in a little package and I’m just really excited about forming a dominant team for a long period of time.”

The Kings’ appointment of Goorjian has bucked the club’s recent trend of hiring proven coaches from the NBA G-League who had assisted in NBA programs.

Will Weaver arrived from the Long Island Nets, Chase Buford from the Wisconsin Herd and Mahmoud Abdelfattah from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

Club owner Paul Smith says the club would have undertaken it’s due recruiting process had the 70-year-old elected not to return to the club, but it was a case of Goorjian being the priority once he made himself available. 

“We’d normally embark upon a process and put a ‘position vacant’ sign out the front, and being the Sydney Kings, the applicants arrive,” Smith said.

“We didn’t want to go through that if we were able to get Brian. It wasn’t an interview, it was a conversation and I think that’s how it landed. If Brian wasn’t available or didn’t see this as the opportunity, we would have undertaken a process, but that wasn’t even a consideration at this point in time.

“In bringing Brian back he fits into an overarching plan in basketball in Sydney and New South Wales, and full credit to the Illawarra Hawks – as much as it makes me sick – it’s great to see them kicking on for New South Wales.

“Brian fits so perfectly into the equation for us to lead our team on court in that regard and create an environment in which young people want to play basketball.

“It was a unique opportunity, there are a lot of talented coaches out there in basketball, but very few have that unique combination of talent and knowledge and perspective that will fit so perfectly into what we want to achieve here in Sydney.”

Goorjian highlighted the feeling of being “wanted” by the Kings made the decision to return easy.

“Two things that are important to me, I feel wanted. I feel you’re happy I’m here and I’m going to be good for the organisation, and for me it’s coming home. It’s finishing off my basketball in the best city in Australia and in the strongest franchise. I am emotional, I feel really fortunate and I’m really excited,” he said.

“My thought process was always over the last 12 months has been I want to come back to Australia, I want to coach in Australia again, but I wanted to go somewhere I felt I was needed and wanted. The fact Sydney has done so tremendously ... it just didn’t seem like something that my services would be required for.

“I wake up at night now and open my eyes and go ‘can this be true?’. I just feel so fortunate the timing is right.”