Melbourne United v Sydney Kings: Why the NBA made a big mistake on passing over NBL superstar Chris Goulding
NBA executives have admitted they got it wrong when they passed Chris Goulding over on multiple occasions. The Sydney Kings just found out why the big league botched it so badly.
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There was never a ‘right place, right time’ moment for Melbourne United superstar Chris Goulding when it came to an NBA chance.
Sydney just learnt the brutal reason why the NBA got it so wrong as Goulding unleashed a 35-point, eight-three-pointer barrage that brought United back from 19 down to lead them to a 105-93 victory in front of a sold out John Cain Arena crowd — which roared ‘MVP’ chants as he went to the free throw line in the last minute.
It should have been a cakewalk for Sydney after they led 53-38 at halftime and looked to have the measure of a shellshocked United in the top-of-the-table clash.
But Goulding, who splashed a three for the first points of the night, always loomed as he kept United afloat with 17 of their 38 at the long break. He doubled that in the second half, exploding for 13, including a number of daggers that ripped out the impressive Kings’ hearts, in the second half to shore up top spot for United.
Here’s a deeper look into why CG should have got that NBA chance.
FIRST BRUSH
A collision of perception, reality and just plain bad luck conspired against the Tasmanian-born, adopted Melbournite, still at the peak of his powers in his 17th NBL season.
CG’s had trips to NBA Summer League, played in NBLxNBA games when United visited Toronto and Philadelphia in 2019 and followed his 2022 Tokyo Olympic bronze medal with a training stint at Golden State.
Off the back of a 2014 NBL season, the last before Melbourne Tigers became United, where he led the league in scoring (22.8ppg) and dropped what remains the only 50-piece in the 40-minute era — on the Kings, no less — Goulding did everything he could to seize his NBA chance in Dallas.
Former Dallas director of player personnel Tony Ronzone, a champion of Aussies in the NBA, said Goulding’s shooting wowed Mavericks coaches.
“We brought him in to Dallas three weeks before Summer League to train with our team and he was outstanding, made shots and I thought he was close to making the team — coaches were excited,” Ronzone, now a player agent, told Code Sports.
“I tried to get him on the roster — he was close to making the Mavericks.”
Goulding shot 10-19 from deep across four Summer League games in Las Vegas, including 4-6 for 12 points in a win over Charlotte, but the Mavs opted to go in a different direction and CG headed to Spain for a stint with Zaragoza.
Ronzone said question marks over Goulding’s athleticism and ability to guard bigger shooting guards should not have stopped him having an NBA career due to his elite shooting.
He believes 192cm Goulding could have had a career comparable to lights out shooter JJ Redick (193cm), who made nearly 2000 treys in his 940-game NBA career.
“I still, to this day, feel he should have made an NBA roster.
“I thought he could be a JJ Redick type. The question was defending big two guards in the league at that time.
“He will go down as a legend in NBL history and I’m so happy for him the way he is still playing and dominating the league.”
BEST OF THE BEST?
Dominating, he is — 17.2pts, 4.0 3PM (career high), 38% 3FG.
Goulding is right in the conversation for greatest Australian-born NBL player in the 40-minute era (2009-10).
Whether you measure his impact by achievements, longevity, the fortitude to take, make and miss clutch shots and the intangible gravity he has on the floor, if Perth superstar Bryce Cotton is 1a, recency bias aside, then Goulding, CJ Bruton and Tom Abercrombie might be in a battle for 1b among the era’s greatest.
Two NBL championships, a finals MVP, five All-NBL selections and a scoring title only tell part of the story. His 1083 treys is over 450 ahead of next closest Cam Gliddon (622), with Cotton third at (613).
He’s second in points scored at 5917, behind only Daniel Johnson (6116) and he’s the most successful player in plus-minus (how many more points his team has scored than the opposition when he is on the floor) at +991. Cotton is No.2 at +950 and former teammate Casper Ware is way back in third at +561.
He’s never afraid of the big moment, never dwells on a miss in that moment and has filled the highlight reel with clutch shots over the journey.
It’s that gravity that has Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah only half joking when he says “We’re going to have some defenders on him when he sits on the bench, when he goes to the locker room — no air space for Goulding.”
“He is obviously talented and he can shoot with the best of them.
“What makes it even tougher is some of the shots he takes and how difficult they are, but it doesn’t seem to bother him or his confidence.
“Hopefully he doesn’t make too many against us.”
Former South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell gets why Abdelfattah is so concerned — he’s been on the end of a Goulding masterclass too many times.
“Chris is just so pure from so far out and so deep that, unless you are 100 per cent committed to just standing next to him, the team defensive rules of basketball, they have to change with him out there because of that length on his shot — to an extent, it’s the Goulding rules,” Mitchell said.
HE KNOWS HE’S BETTER THAN THOSE NBA GUYS
Mitchell, who coached Goulding during his time as an assistant to Dean Vickerman at United, believes a burst appendix ruined another golden NBA opportunity.
In 2018, With United on a plane to the US to face Oklahoma City, Goulding was forced to stay home as his teammates pushed the Thunder to within one point of a massive boilover.
Mitchell said he regularly watched Goulding dominate NBA players during off-season scrimmages at United.
“You’d get (Joe) Ingles, you’d get (Dante) Exum, you’d get (Jonah) Bolden, Delly (Matthew Dellavedova), guys on the fringe like Mangok Mathiang, Deng Adel, all these blokes who were on NBA rosters,” Mitchell said.
“It didn’t matter who you brought in, when you opened up the gym and made it a really high level pick up game, he was the best player.
“There’s a competitive edge about him that he probably looks at these guys, knows that he’s a better basketball player, maybe not the prototypical NBA guy, but he knows he’s better and he’s out there to prove a point — and I think that’s what serves him well in big games.
“He can drift at times but, when it’s a big game, for instance, game five of the 2018 grand final series against Adelaide to win the championship (23 points, five threes), he just says, ‘I’m going to show you all who’s the best’. He’s just got something very few others in the league have’.
“That’s why people say he should have been in the NBA.”
THE NBA BLEW IT
Top of the list of people who think NBA teams made a big mistake in overlooking CG is US-based announcer Beau Estes — better known as NBA Beau to Aussie hoops fans who would be familiar with his NBA and NBL top-10 masterpieces.
“He’s definitely been NBA-worthy for years,” he told Code Sports.
Check out the best plays from Round 7 🤩
— NBL (@NBL) November 14, 2023
Presented by Reebok - the official footwear partner of the NBL ðŸ¤
🎙ï¸@NBABeaupic.twitter.com/oCaGB226pQ
“He’s certainly among the top 450 players in the world.
“When I started working with the NBL, the first player I asked about was Chris.
“I actually sent a note to a few of my contacts in Australia basically asking, ‘Why in the world is Chris not in the NBA?’.”
Goulding got other NBLxNBA chances in 2018 and 2019, impressing in each, particularly his seven-three, 25-point outburst against Sacramento, but Estes said NBA executives had unfortunately put a line through his name.
“I was at a late night gathering at the NBA’s Summer League in Las Vegas and cornered a couple of former executives to ask about it,” he said.
Chris Goulding… the NBA scouts great mistake https://t.co/pcXYG1ir1D
— NBABeau (@NBABeau) November 12, 2023
“What I learned answered the question about Chris and the NBA.
“Basically, teams start to close the book on a player once he gets to around 27-28 years old.
“Chris has been the rare player to make strides at and beyond that age.
“I was told, ‘We just may have missed on this one. It happens’.”
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Goulding pauses when asked about the whole NBA thing — “It’s not something I think about”.
For someone so competitive, I get the feeling he’s genuinely at peace about it.
“It’s not something I sit and dwell on and say ‘oh, if this had happened’, and it’s not really something that I want to sit and dwell on, either — it’s not that big a deal for me,” Goulding said.
“It was a cool experience at the time to go and try your hat.
“I was hanging around, I was doing everything I could, I was having conversations with my agent, who was speaking to them. Is that close? I don’t know.
“Not close enough, so it doesn’t really matter, whether you’re an inch or a mile.”
FATHER FIGURE TO AUSSIE NBA YOUNG GUNS
Goulding’s developed from a brash youngster to one of the NBL’s best leaders — and one of its most polarising players. He’s beloved by the United faithful and loathed by opposing fans.
Agent Daniel Moldovan said Goulding had become a “father figure” to young players who had signed with his Octagon agency.
“I wish I had 50 of him. He has been the head of the entire playing group since day one,” Moldovan said.
“Every young player I sign, from (Josh) Giddey to Dyson (Daniels) to (Luke) Travers and so on, Chris wraps an arm around them and mentors them.
“Dyson told me that Chris is the best teammate he has ever had regarding communication and friendship and mentorship.
“He has had real NBA interest, but nothing ever got over the line, unfortunately.”
“I have no doubt he could have succeeded in the NBA.”
Long-time NBL fans will remember a controversial sign at John Cain Arena — then Hisense — that helped keep the Sydney v Melbourne rivalry alive, in the wake of the rebranding of the Tigers to United.
You couldn’t miss the “go hard or go to Sydney” plastered in the stands. United fans loved it, while it grated those who favoured the Kings, helping build a rivalry that is set to hit fever pitch again when the two teams go head to head in Sunday’s top-of-the-table clash.
Sydney owner Paul Smith and United chief marketing officer Tom van de Vusse, in 2018, got in on the banter with a humorous Twitter exchange.
“Hey @MelbUnitedHQ are you guys still rocking the “Go Hard or go to Sydney” sign? We are just working on some signage for the 23rd.....,” Smith wrote, to which van de Vusse replied: “We switched it out for a 2017/18 NBL Champions sign instead.”
Hey @MelbUnitedHQ are you guys still rocking the “Go Hard or go to Sydney†sign? We are just working on some signage for the 23rd.....
— Paul Smith (@psmithtse) December 13, 2018
We switched it out for a 2017/18 NBL Champions sign instead
— Tom van de Vusse (@Tomm_vdV) December 13, 2018
From 2016-19, United built a 10-game winning streak over the Kings. Since then, Sydney holds a 10-5 advantage, including a 3-0 season sweep in NBL23 — by 20, 18 and 21.
There was the unforgettable 45-point demolition United handed out to Sydney in game two of the 2019-20 semi finals and the epic two-point series-clinching win the Kings replied with. Add a 42-point United win in 2021-22 to a 100-98 double-overtime thriller the same year and the on-court stuff feeds into the off-court hype.
📣Go hard or go to Sydney 📣
— Hayley Wildes (@wildes_hayley) December 11, 2017
Dave Andersen protecting home court last night! 👊🼠pic.twitter.com/SMdBnQOHzn
When one of your slogans is "go hard or go to Sydney"...you know it's going to be a wild night @NBL#WeAreMelbourne
— Dan (@drodge4) December 27, 2015
In 2018, Andrew Bogut turned his back on United at the 11th hour to join Sydney but Melbourne won that season’s championship, led by Casper Ware — who signed with the Kings the next season. The import guard copped relentless boos whenever he returned to Melbourne in the violet crumble colours.
“In my time here … Casper changing clubs was a big part of that rivalry really stepping up and even before that Bogut kind of being a Melbourne guy and us chatting to him and him playing for Sydney so I think those two personnel ones have been big and then Paul Smith wants to ramp it up a little bit at different times,” United coach Dean Vickerman said.
“We’ve been two quality basketball teams that are trying to win the championship and they’ve won the last two and that certainly gives me an edge to say ‘this is a team that we’ve got to be able to find a way to win against’.”
He’ll have to do that without injured stars Ian Clark (hamstring) and Matthew Dellavedova (calf), but versatile forward Luke Travers returns from concussion for the blockbuster clash.
Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah is just glad the United game is finally here because he has been asked questions about the highly-anticipated battle between the NBL’s two best teams for weeks.
“Everyone has been hassling me about the clash,” he said.
“I was being asked about it when we played New Zealand — and I’m like ‘let’s get through the Breakers and the Bullets games first’.
“Now we have Melbourne and it’s going to be a great game.”
Abdelfattah hasn’t had a chance to watch every United game due to his own busy schedule, but he rates what he has seen from Vickerman’s men.
“It’s United’s depth and the toughness that they play with,” he said.
“They also have a lot of talent.
“I’ve watched a few games, as a fan watching and learning, and they (United) are a very competitive team and a lot of their games go down to the wire.”
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