GOAT Goorjian turns darkest despair into seventh heaven

• ‍Game 1: 'Saturday night slaughter' as KD's Kings fire first shot‍
• Game 2: Cotton game-winner levels series as KD loses his cool‍
• Game 3: 'All love' as KD talks Cotton clash as Kings take Game 3
• Game 4: DJ winds back the clock to keep 36ers alive‍
• Game 5: Kings crowned champions in greatest decider ever

Seventy-two-year-old Brian Goorjian sat with his hands on his head. The Kings had slumped to 2-3 with worse still to come.

“We won a game that we probably shouldn't have won, but we fought hard enough to get, you know, the perfect storm across the line,” Tasmania JackJumpers head coach Scott Roth said after beating Sydney 86-70 on October 15, 2025.

“When I was done with (my) press conference, I walked right out here in this next room, next door, and I saw Brian Goorjian with his hands on his head on the couch, slumped over and quite distraught.

“And for about two months, all I heard about was what a bad coach he is.

“Game’s passing him by, he's too old, the roster’s not good, you need another American. On and on and on about this guy who's basically done everything he possibly could for this country.

“His name's up in the rafters, and he's a master at his craft.

“And to go against him is a privilege.

“And watch him do his job at 72 years old, I can be one-fourth of what he is, not one-fourth of what he is.

“He loves this game, and to see him in that mode that I saw him three months ago really shook me about what we do.

“And then to see him just get dragged through the coals, but these last six weeks have been a master class in coaching.

“And if you can't appreciate what he's done for Australian basketball, and what he's done for this franchise, and what he's put in these last six weeks, he's coach of the year by far, not close for me.

“When you have a decimated roster, and you're still winning games, and people are still bitching and moaning, cause it's just not good enough.

“And you keep ticking over and ticking over and winning games, that's a craft.

“That's a GOAT.”

The GOAT visits the GOAT

Three months later, Roth’s JackJumpers had just been beaten 105-94 by Goorjian’s Kings in Round 18. Sydney was rolling at 17-8, recovering from 3-5 as Goorjian needed all six decades of his coaching experience to build his team into a contender.

The Kings limped into the FIBA Break at the end of November 2025 at 7-6, searching for their identity and consistency.

It was right before Goorjian coached his 850th NBL game.

He used the break to visit Lindsay Gaze.

"Really, really a lot of thought," Goorjian revealed.

"When we went into the break, I had this itch – I wanted to see Lindsay and fly back to Melbourne and see him.

"When I sat down with him, and he talked about (Lanard) Copeland, his son (Andrew), (Mark) Bradtke, (Warrick) Giddey – he lights up like a Christmas tree. I walked out of there and thought, my energy’s in the wrong place.

"Right now, as a coach, you walk around the door, and the guy that lost is in a room by himself going like this, because if you lose, you’re going to get fired.

"It’s not about that. It’s about the relationships and the development and the players you’ve coached.

"I started thinking about these guys, what good guys they are, and the enjoyment of spending time with them instead of getting buried in the negative and on the computer.

"More coffees. More talks. More one-on-one. More high road. What am I doing if I’m not enjoying this, if I’m not building those relationships?

"I’ve got guys now I coached who are 60. You go to the Summer League, and you see general managers, head coaches – Jamahl Mosley (2002 NBL Sixth Man) – guys who’ve gone on and done great things, and you were part of that.

"If you’re not smelling the roses in that form, you don’t belong in it.

That meeting with Lindsay gave me a real lift and got my head back where it should be."

The game and season are on the line.

Game 5 of the NBL26 Championship Series was a microcosm of the Kings' season. Tested early, hung around, hung around some more – absorbed pressure, absorbed more pressure, fought through adversity and then with the game – the season – on the line went on a 27-9 run to win it all.

“For us, it’s instinct,” Goorjian said the morning after at the champion’s media call.

“I didn’t call a play the whole game. What I knew from the players is that we were going to play at pace and play concept.

“At the end of the game, they knew I had no timeouts left when KD did his nose — or he wouldn’t have been able to shoot the free throw. So I ate the timeout. I had nothing.

“It was them playing on concept and flow. I’ve got some really smart players.

“But as far as a play for this and a play for that, we didn’t play that way the whole series.”

It wasn’t the only timeout Goorjian “burned” in Game 5; he called a timeout in the first half when the Kings muddled their match-ups. He spent almost all of the two minutes working through who was on the floor.

The second timeout came after Kendric Davis was whacked across the nose by Bryce Cotton with 2:20 to play. The game stopped for a blood rule, but Goorjian called his last timeout so Davis could re-enter and shoot a pair of free throws, which he made. That's elite coaching.

The first rolled around the rim, the second was nothing but net.

92-88.

“Watching the game, there were so many times you thought – we cut it to two, and they open it up to nine again. We cut it to five, and they open it up again,” Goorjian said.

“Things happen in a game where you go — it’s probably not going to happen tonight. The layup doesn’t go in, the tip doesn’t go in, the four-point play by Bryce.

“But the word I got back – Xavier was saying a lot of people overseas, in America – the common word for the win was ‘gritty’.

“That is what I think Sydney fell in love with, with this team. From the start, we were behind the eight ball. We always had a competitive spirit and grit to us.

“When everybody else thought we were in deep trouble, we kept fighting and playing the next possession.

“To win it in that style, just put an envelope on our year.”

The Player’s Coach

Grand Final MVP Davis first thanked the fans, then Goorjian, as he stood at the lectern accepting the Larry Sengstock Medal, leading the Kings to their sixth championship and third in five years.

“Goorj – where Goorj at? he said at the podium.

”He gave me an opportunity when everybody tried to bash my name. He said, ‘I believe in you, son. I’m going to make you a better man’.”

But it was more than just Davis; Goorjian assembled a championship roster.

Xavier Cooks and Matthew Dellavedova, signed NBA veteran Torrey Craig mid-season after losing Bul Kuol to an ACL injury, stretch centre Tim Soares and nurtured the emergence of “FIBA” Jaylin Galloway.

Cooks and Dellavedova both missed games during a key stretch in January and Goorjian still found a way to win ball games en route to finishing minor premiers at 24-9.

“I think a big goal at the start of this build — and I think it’s been a rebuild in the last two years — new ownership, new staff, a lot of new players — was trying to not only win a championship but captivate the city,” Goorjian said.

“I could feel it walking around the township that I lived in. Notes in front of the door: you step outside – ‘Good luck’.

“And then the atmosphere that we were in — I’ve never experienced that. Two minutes to go in the game, everybody is standing. All through the overtime, everybody was standing.

“I think the style of play that this team had captivated the city.”

The Game 5 Grind

Six-time MVP and nine-time scoring champion Cotton’s stat line in Game 5 was one of the greatest in the league’s history: 35 points; nine assists; four rebounds; a steal; and a block in 45 minutes. He didn’t come off the floor.

Cotton, 33, played 195:45 minutes of a possible 205 minutes in the championship series – five games in 14 days, including five flights between Adelaide and Sydney.

Eight of the 10 minutes he didn’t play came in Game 1 as the Kings dismantled the Adelaide 36ers 112-68 at Qudos Bank Arena.

During Cotton’s 188th minute of the series, he hit what could have been the biggest shot in the series – after his Game 2 buzzer beater to tie the series at 1-1.

With 2:29 left in regulation, Cotton splashed a three-pointer and was fouled by Craig. He made the and-1 to push the lead to 92-86.

“Without a doubt, there was a fatigue factor,” Goorjian said of the Kings' platoon defence on Cotton.

“Torrey and Delly – different players, different matchups – but we felt by that game the top two guys defending Bryce were those two, and he (Makuach Maluach) was the third option.

“When Delly fouled out, where we were at in the game – his contribution and his freshness and energy got the whole stadium involved.

“He dove on a loose ball and picked that up, blocked the shot, then we got a steal, and he got a dunk.

“He’s a real important piece. Everything was done prior to the game.

“Everybody knew and was ready for what we talked about – whether it’s a minute, whether it’s 10, whether it’s 30 – you know what your role is and perform it at your best. And they did.”

Maluach played just 12:11 in Game 5, and Goorjian sent him to Cotton when Dellavedova, who chased Steph Curry around in the 2016 NBA Finals, fouled out, as did Craig.

Maluach had two steals – both from Cotton – a block and an emphatic dunk that sent the 18,000+ fans at Qudos Bank Arena into a championship-winning frenzy.

Where it all started

Goorjian started his coaching career in Ballarat in 1986 with the Miners in the SEABL. He led them to the conference championship in 1987 and just a year later was appointed head coach of the Eastside Spectres in the NBL.

Ten years earlier, Goorjian arrived in Australia as a player for Lindsay Gaze and the Melbourne Tigers.

Fifty years later, he is a seven-time NBL championship coach, seven-time NBL coach of the year and the winningest coach in Australian professional sports history. He’s won more than 70% of the games he’s walked and stalked the sidelines.

“I knew going into (Game 5) — I haven’t felt like this during the day of a game since the bronze medal game,” Goorjian revealed.

“Normally, you’re viewing what winning feels like, and all I could think about coming into this game, to be truthful, is what happens if this doesn’t happen.

“18,000 people there, this group, where I am in my career, and not experience what we’re experiencing now. That was a horrendous day.

“Going into game time, you don’t feel — you’re just coaching. But when I went home last night and watched it again, I realised why I was so nervous all day.

“I felt all the way through that series.”

The bronze medal game Goorjian referred to was the Australian Boomers' pursuit of their first Olympic Games medal in Tokyo, Japan, five years ago. They won it.

Wisdom is greatness

Albert Einstein once said: "Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

This is the perfect definition of Goorjian, himself the son of a high school basketball coach.

“It’s selection of people,” Goorjian said of the Kings since he returned in 2024.

“You have to have a great office, you have to have great ownership, and you have to have great players.

“Like I said, we had a two-year slide where the organisation went through change — change in staff, change in players, change in ownership.

“But we’ve always stayed competitive.

“Now I just think we’ve hit pay dirt on who we’ve selected in all these aspects of it.

“Selection of people in sport is the ingredient of winning.”

Blessing of the basketball gods

At the heart of it all, Goorjian understands it’s the theatre of the game that connects it to its players and the fans.

“Besides everything everybody’s talked about – the MVP, things between the organisations – the actual basketball itself, I kept looking on the floor. There was never not really high quality, a lot of NBA, international (players).

“The level of basketball was incredible. The no love, respect, competition on the floor, and the ending of all these games — and last night — besides how overtime went, the greatness of the game was the level of play.

“I just thought that through the whole series, it was a really great showcase for the NBL.

“I get caught up in all this, but it’s about the team. The players have made such mention of that.

“We talked every time going through the back half of the season — just seeing those guys up (the fans) and the energy they were providing. To the point when we got to the final series, we got a message from the NBL saying you’ve got to sit those guys down, they’re not allowed to stand up so much.

“The guys in all their speeches, on their own rights, all mentioned them.

“They know they were a huge part of this.”

Peer review is the most powerful of all

“He's got passion at 72 years old to do that job and walk up and down and coach young guys with attitudes and all the things you run across,” Roth said of Goorjian back in January.

“You've been a national team coach — it's just the longevity of what he does.

“He wins everywhere he goes.

“If he has a down year, he comes right back and wins again. And that's special.

“At his age — I hate bringing his age up — he could coach to 100 probably and get games across the line.

“That's just how good a coach he is.

“And over the course of a couple of years, we've built a relationship that didn't exist.

“In my first year, I wanted to leave and go home with COVID and not seeing my wife for 14 months and my daughter for 18 months.

“I was about ready to pack it in and get out of here.

He called me and said, ‘Can you just hang on? You're just too good at what you do.’

“That was a lie, but I did hang on at the end of the day.

“And he's always sent words of encouragement.

“As I said, when I saw him three months ago at 72 years old with his hands in his head and distraught about a game — a game that he's mastered at his level — that really gets me emotional.”

Just 172 days later, Goorjian’s hands went from his head to the championship trophy and immortality.

Brian Goorjian — By the Numbers

Born: June 28, 1953 (72) – Glendale, California
Nationality: American / Australian
Height: 1.91m
Playing Career: Melbourne Tigers (1977–1985)
Position: Guard

Coaching Timeline

• Ballarat Miners (1986–1987)
• Eastside Spectres (1988–1991)
• South East Melbourne Magic (1992–1998)
• Victoria Titans (1998–2002)
• Sydney Kings (2002–2008)
• South Dragons (2008–2009)
• Dongguan Leopards (2009–2015)
• Guangdong Southern Tigers – Assistant (2015–2016)
• Xinjiang Flying Tigers – Assistant (2018–2019)
• Illawarra Hawks (2020–2022)
• Bay Area Dragons (2022–2023)
• Sydney Kings (2024–present)

Career Highlights

• 7× NBL Champion (1992, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2026)
• 7× NBL Coach of the Year (1992, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2026)

National Team Career — The Breakthrough Architect

Appointed head coach in 2001, Goorjian became the first foreign-born coach to lead Australia and immediately took the program into a new era of consistent international relevance.

First Tenure (2001–2008)

• Olympics: Athens 2004, Beijing 2008
• FIBA World Cup: 2006
• Commonwealth Games: Gold medal – Melbourne 2006

The Return — History Delivered (2020–2024)

When Goorjian returned in 2020, the expectation shifted from competing to finishing. He delivered immediately.

Tokyo Olympics (2021)

• Bronze Medal — Australia’s first-ever Olympic medal in men’s basketball

About the Author

Peter Brown is the head coach of the Sydney Comets Women’s Youth League team in the Waratah Basketball League in NSW. He is also the assistant coach for the Comets NBL1 women’s team in the NBL East Conference. Peter is a 30-year journalist, starting as a sports reporter at the NT News in the early 1990s. He played junior basketball for the Northern Territory at national championships from U16 to U20 and for the Territory’s senior men’s team at numerous international tournaments. Peter has been a basketball fan since the early 80s, especially the NBA. Basketball is his passion — and his opinions his own. Email peter.brown@basketball.com.au with feedback.