South East Melbourne Magic men Andrew Parkinson Brian Goorjian on the incredible cancer fight that inspired Boomers’ greatest triumph
As Brian Goorjian prepared to lead the Boomers to history at the Tokyo Olympics, one man was on his mind. A former favourite he’d recruited to the Magic decades prior, fighting the battle of his life.
When Brian Goorjian recruited Andrew Parkinson to the South East Melbourne Magic back in 1992, no one could have fathomed the small but vital role he’d play in the biggest moment in Australian basketball history.
Fast forward three decades. Tokyo – 2021. The Boomers are preparing to take on Slovenia for Olympic bronze.
‘Parky’, an NBL cult figure on two Magic title teams under Goorjian, lay in an intensive care unit.
He’d been “split open” as doctors “ripped” out his prostate, bladder and lymph nodes, an attempt to halt the aggressive small cell carcinoma that threatened his life.
It was the morning of the biggest game of Goorjian’s decorated career.
The Australian coach’s mind turned to his friend and the battle he’d fought since the 2019 diagnosis that rocked the basketball community.
“I get emotional speaking about this,” Parkinson said, fighting back tears.
“It was probably the worst time of my life because I’d had all this treatment and gone through the wringer for two solid years and it didn’t work.
“They just said, look, we’re going to have to just rip … your organs out.
“For him (Goorjian) to do that (reach out) on the biggest day of his coaching career and for him to think of me … It’s fair to say that gave me a really big lift.”
The message between coach and disciple went a little like this:
“(He) reached out to me just to say ‘Hey, Parky, I’m thinking of you, mate. We’re going to fight, just like you’.
“I just told him I loved him and that was whether they win or lose.”
Win, they did, and, Goorjian says, it was that special moment with Parky which put everything in perspective as he faced the task of securing the country’s first major men’s basketball medal.
“Parkinson talks about the fact I reached out to him on that day and what it did for him but it was more on the flipside, what it did for me leading into the bronze medal game,” Goorjian said.
“Parky was in the battle of his life when we were at the Olympics and we had a heartfelt conversation. When I put that phone up, I was wringing wet with tears.
“It was huge for me.”
LIFE CHANGED IN AN INSTANT
Looking back, Parky says he ignored serious signs in the lead up to his diagnosis.
“I was urinating pure blood,” Parkinson said.
“I know it sounds silly now, but I felt like I was healthy and I didn’t think there was anything wrong.
“I thought it would pass which, now, when you think about it, was just stupid.”
He’d also felt pain in his lower abdomen for some time, passing it off as an old injury.
A week before a 2019 trip to Adelaide for a tournament with Magic forever mates including Sam Mackinnon, Chris Anstey and Darren Lucas, a visit to the GP brought devastating news.
“I did a quick test and I did all the scans and, by the end of the week, I’d been diagnosed with a rare cancer and they basically gave me two or three years to live,” Parkinson said.
“My whole life changed. I had young daughters in high school at the time and I started (thinking) ‘am I going to see their 21st birthday? Am I going to be able to walk them down the aisle?’ My whole life changed.”
That pain he’d been ignoring was caused by a golf-ball sized tumour in his bladder, which was surgically removed.
From there, it was chemotherapy, radiation and then a painful bacillus Calmette-Guérin treatment – a tuberculosis vaccine that can treat some forms of bladder cancer.
“They inject tuberculosis down through your ‘third eye’,” Parkinson cringed.
“You go into hospital for six weeks and then you wee it out and it’s like passing razor blades.”
The organ removal followed in 2021 and, when the cancer returned, immunotherapy was the last roll of the dice.
“It has worked so far, I’ve actually been cancer free for a year,” he said.
“I’ve got another scan coming up in a few months – I get a bit anxious before those – but I’m still around here talking to you and we’re nearly into 2025 and I got to see both my daughters turn 21.”
He’s still shooting, too, hitting the court every week at MSAC – on Monday night, he poured in a lazy 27 points on 4/5 from deep.
PARKY’S PLIGHT UNITES
Lessons from a life in basketball helped Parkinson endure.
“The values, the character, the strength he got from playing the game, he carried that over into his fight,” Goorjian said.
Parky, ever the larrikin, doesn’t disagree – he embraced every tough moment with a smile and the adage “you may see me struggle, but you’ll never see me quit”.
“I’ve had this regimen which I’ve drawn on my old basketball days and during chemo and a lot of those times, I used to think, ‘Geez, this isn’t as hard as a Brian Goorjian pre-season, I can get through this’,” he laughed.
Support from the basketball community overflowed but his determination has had a unifying effect.
“His battle has brought that Magic group, guys like Lucas, Anstey, Jason Smith, even closer,” Goorjian said.
BYGONES ARE BYGONES
No NBL fan of the vintage will ever forget the bitter rivalry between the Melbourne Tigers and Magic (during its short but memorable existence from 1992-98).
Parkinson and Tigers hardman Ray Gordon were at the centre of it. Gordon punched up Parky during an infamous 1993 pre-season game that devolved into an all-in brawl between the Magic and Tigers.
“We hated each other,” Parkinson recalls.
But that was then. Now, the sworn enemy – along with most of those former Tigers – is among his greatest supporters.
“Ray Gordon is now one of my good mates,” Parkinson said.
“When he found out my struggle, he was immediately on the phone.”
HONOURING MAGIC MEN
The Magic might be no more, but the current incarnation of South East Melbourne is honouring the Men in Black by wearing the old strip in Saturday night’s Heritage Round clash with Cairns.
Parky, along with several past players, will attend the game. Mackinnon, who debuted with the Magic as a 16-year-old, is a Phoenix assistant coach.
“We’re really grateful,” Parkinson said.
“We still have that connection with Sam and there’s a lot of Phoenix fans that, underneath their Phoenix gear, you’ll see the occasional Parky uniform, Mackinnon, (Mike) Kelly, Anstey,” Parkinson said.
“We haven’t played a game in over a quarter-of-a-century, now, but there are a lot of people who were kids in the 1990s who remember the Magic.”
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