‘I get teary when I think about it’: The basketball question making super coach Brian Goorjian emotional

Brian Goorjian’s Illawarra Hawks bowed out of the NBL title race on Sunday and now the super coach has some big decisions to make.

Brian Goorjian’s two-year contract with Illawarra Hawks ended following Sunday’s semi-final loss at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena and now the super coach is torn.

It appeared balancing his role as Australian Boomers head coach – guiding them to a long-awaited bronze medal last year – and staying at the Hawks is quite an emotional decision for the 68-year-old.

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“I get teary when I think about it,” he said after his team’s 12-point loss to the Kings in game two of the playoff series.

“I’m taking a deep breath. My decision is all about timing.

“What’s the best for the organisation? What’s the best for the staff I’m with?

“There’s a lot going on under the table that you wouldn’t know about, about the personnel around the team, so much good going on.

“I’ve got such a great young staff with this team and with the Boomers, the decision is on me to not be selfish doing what’s best for the organisation … I love the ’Gong whichever way it goes.”

Brian Goorjian’s Hawks bowed out of the NBL title race on Sunday. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Since returning from more than a decade coaching in China, Goorjian has taken Illawarra to third and second in consecutive seasons to make the playoffs, a factor making it that much harder for the six-time NBL champion to come to a decision.

“Back-to-back years in the top four, in a competition like that, in a regional community is hard to do,” Goorjian said.

“That’s the goal in this: to make (Illawarra) a Perth, a United, a Sydney Kings, and it’s a challenge and what we came up with for the following year has a big say in that.

“I think this team’s right there to win the championship and we went toe to toe (with Sydney).

“(We‘ve) got to get that group of guys back and there’s the ability to sign some more pieces.”

Illawarra’s season is over. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph’s Matt Logue reports that Goorjian’s decision could spark a NBL free trading frenzy, not the least with Boomer Duop Reath completing a one-year deal at Illawarra as of Sunday.

The big man averaged 15 points and seven rebounds in his first NBL regular season before standing up in the playoffs with a cumulative 46 points in the semis.

If the Hawks are to make that championship push, they can ill afford to lose him, with the NBA also a factor.

Coach Chase Buford said he was fully aware of the gravitas of defeating Goorjian’s team in his first year with the Kings.

“Everybody speaks the world of him,” said Buford after Sunday’s win, “(and) it’s a little humbling to come in for my first playoff series and go up against somebody like that.

“(800-plus games and more than 500 wins) it’s just so incredible what he’s been able to accomplish, and it just makes it that much sweeter.”

Facing the challenge of playing a possible two games away from home in Wollongong, the Kings prevailed by 10 and 12 to win the playoff series despite each of the teams’ regular season match-ups being decided by eight points or less.

Sydney will meet either Melbourne United or the Tasmania JackJumpers in the grand final series.

Originally published as ‘I get teary when I think about it’: The basketball question making super coach Brian Goorjian emotional