Longley: What It Takes to Go Back-to-Back

The Sydney Kings possess some serious championship winning pedigree within their four walls – and that’s not just the playing group.

Two of the clubs minority owners – Andrew Bogut and Luc Longley – have won NBA Championships. Bogut in 2015 with the Golden State Warriors, and Longley as part of Chicago’s second three-peat of the 1990’s.

Longley, as a member of a Bulls team led by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, helped his side dominate the NBA and win the 1996, 1997 and 1998 titles. If anyone knows the rigours of winning multiple championships, it’s him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How will the Kings run it back? Luck? Basketball Gods? Hard work? Great recruitment and coaching? <br><br>In the first ep of a series Luc Longley sheds light on what he believes it takes to go back-to-back<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/q1AHQMQRQo">pic.twitter.com/q1AHQMQRQo</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1629753268715831296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“What makes going back-to-back challenging is you become the hunted,” Longley told the Sydney Kings website. “Your best players get picked off because their value goes up.

“In our case Jaylen (Adams) and Jarell (Martin), those guys got paid triple the money to go away because they’d won a championship and had been seen winning.

“Everybody wants to be around winners. When you’re trying to win you want to absorb winners into your program so there’s an attrition thing that happens.”

Much like NBL22 the Kings absolutely nailed their recruitment in NBL23.

Star imports Adams, Martin and Ian Clark may have exited the building alongside the likes of Tom Vodanovich and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, but they were ably replaced by Derrick Walton Jr, Justin Simon, Tim Soares, and crucial role player Kouat Noi.

Considering player recruitment is far from an exact science, Longley says there’s elements out of your control that must fall your way.

“The other thing that makes it hard to win multiple championships is that it takes a lot of luck,” Longley said.

“It takes a lot of right place, right time.

“I’m sure dynasties will tell you from evidence that it’s not just luck, but there is a lot of luck involved – and last year we had luck.”

The Sydney Kings take on the New Zealand Breakers in the NBL23 Championship Series.

Game 1 of the best of five contest tips off on Friday, March 3 at 7:30pm AEDT – live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.