X Marks Spot in Melbourne

Friday, August 26, 2022

After crossing over from Illawarra, Xavier Rathan-Mayes has the chance to play under one of the most successful modern coaches of the NBL

By Dan Woods - NBL Media

After crossing over from Illawarra, Xavier Rathan-Mayes has the chance to play under one of the most successful modern coaches of the NBL, just one season after being guided by the greatest coach Australia has ever produced.

Playing under Brian Goorjian at Illawarra, Rathan-Mayes took the NBL by storm with his high-powered offensive tools from the bench, where he narrowly missed out on winning the league's Sixth Man of the Year honours to new Melbourne teammate Shea Ili.

Rathan-Mayes says United coach Dean Vickerman is the only person he wanted to play for once Goorjian left Australian shores.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Building ? <a href="https://t.co/Z7VaIWyY4E">pic.twitter.com/Z7VaIWyY4E</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1561933789802160128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“I told ‘Deano’ in our conversations leading up that if I wasn’t playing for ‘Goorj’ that I would want to play for [him]. I think they have a lot of similarities,” Rathan-Mayes told The Daily Telegraph.

“Since I’ve walked in the door 'Deano' has basically told us to be ourselves and given us that freedom to really go out there and show who we are on and off the court.

“I think that’s special for players in itself because we don’t get that a lot, especially coming from the NBA side, we’re put in boxes, we’re restricted to do certain things and play certain roles, but here, it's ‘man, be yourself and that’s all we need from you’.

“That’s something we’re excited about and that’s something that’s really going to make us (United) be special this year.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First day ? <a href="https://t.co/2ZJd2V9CTz">pic.twitter.com/2ZJd2V9CTz</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1560165694033252353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rathan-Mayes’ 25 point, six-rebound, eight-assist, four-steal performance against Melbourne will go down in history as the game that convinced United to sign him up for NBL23.

He was unstoppable on that night, forming an exciting one-two punch with now Adelaide forward Antonius Cleveland, to secure a famous win for the Illawarra Hawks.

Despite having only spent a short time in Melbourne, he’s already reminding his new teammates of that memorable night.

“That was a fun game. It was a bit unique for me because obviously they decided to start Tyler (Harvey) and bring me off the bench last year, and Tyler was hurt that game, so I got my opportunity to step into that role in that starting spot where I thought I belonged to really flourish,” Rathan-Mayes said.

“I’m happy to be on this side now … on our first day we weren’t allowed to do contact. They had us doing five on-zero, non-contact stuff and we’re going (of pre-season) through our plays. As we come over to the sidelines 'Peat' (Mason Peatling) looks at me and says ‘did you teach them C-5?’.

“C-5 was our high pick and roll ball screenplay we ran every time we played United, because United was in such a deep drop. Everybody started laughing because that was the play that essentially beat Melbourne.”

Click here for the full story >> United's new men are serious