Cairns Taipans coach brought up a massive milestone against his former championship club
It is one of the hardest trips to make in the NBL but Taipans coach knows travelling to Perth all too well and this time it was for more than just a win.
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It is one of the hardest trips to make in the NBL but Taipans coach knows travelling to Perth all too well and this time it was for more than just a win.
Adam Forde coached his 150th game as head coach on Sunday when his Taipans played the Wildcats, a side he was an assistant coach at when they won four of their 10 championships.
“If anything it was probably a little milestone in the back of my mind that I wanted to achieve,” Forde said.
“There’s a lot of good assistant coaches throughout the last two decades that have never had an opportunity to coach a NBL game.
“There is a lot of guys I connect with and respect in those circles.
“So for me to get 150, yeah it’s kind of cool, special and appreciative and humble and everything else.”
In a tough season for Forde and his Taipans, there have been some shining moments throughout it for the 43-year-old.
In round nine, the Taipans hosted New Zealand Breakers in what was Forde’s 100th game as head coach in Cairns colours.
Forde was the head coach of the Rockingham Flames, a SBL side in Perth before moving to the East Perth Eagles as an assistant coach the following year before continuing on the assistant path at West Coast Waves.
In 2012 he became head coach of the East Perth Eagles and it was during this time he managed to move into an assistant coaching role at the Perth Wildcats in 2013.
Forde arrived at the Perth Wildcats originally in 2011 and after a stint as a development coach, Forde was appointed the Wildcats’ assistant becoming a full time assistant coach in 2015.
Mentored under Trevor Gleeson, Forde won four NBL championships in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
In May 2019, Forde packed up and moved the Sydney where he became an assistant coach of the Kings.
Forde and head coach Will Weaver guided the Kings to the 2019-20 minor premiership and their first NBL Grand Final appearance since 2008.
It was against his former club, the Wildcats with the Kings losing 2-1 in the final series.
In December 2020, Forde was announced as the new head coach of the Kings following Weaver’s departure.
The Kings finished fifth in the 2020-21 NBL season just missing out on a finals berth.
The four time NBL champion assistant coach parted ways with the Kings at the end of the season and coached the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in New Zealand’s National Basketball League.
Following a grand final appearance in the 2021 season for the Hawks, Forde signed with the Cairns Taipans as the head coach.
After finishing his first season (2021-22 season) with just nine wins, Forde guided the Taipans to 18 wins and a finals spot in the 2022-23 season, narrowly missing out on a Grand Final berth, going down the Sydney Kings.
With a successful year as head coach, Forde was named the 2023 NBL Coach of the Year.
As Taipans head coach, Forde has won 46 games from a possible 110, leaving him with a 42 percent win rate.
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