'I failed': Vickerman reveals why United exit timing was right

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Three-time NBL championship coach Dean Vickerman has revealed a stunning admission behind his exit from Melbourne United after leading the powerhouse franchise for nine seasons, which included two titles.

Vickerman, who is set to coach in the Japanese B League and join fellow Aussies including Andrej Lemanis as well as Shawn Dennis and Mick Downer, said he believes he failed after not bringing another championship to United in the last three seasons.

"(I have) a picture on my wall of a jersey from New Zealand that had the nine years and the four championship pictures and it's like 'oh man, I just got to this nine-year mark again'," the 54-year-old mentor said on the latest edition of Cut to the Jase with Jason Cadee.

"I've kind of done these cycles of three years and, you know, the first three years as head coach in New Zealand, we won a championship and went to two grand finals.

"The first three in Melbourne, same thing. The second three in Melbourne, same thing.

"Then this third three, we go to two championship games and miss out last year, and it's kind of like 'oh, I did fail'. To me, I failed these last three years because I didn't bring a championship to the club.

"So there was a part of like, yeah it's time for someone else to reinvent this and to do it different."

Vickerman, who was a longtime NBL assistant coach before taking over from Lemanis at the Breakers in 2013, has become best the head coach in the league in the past decade and is also now part of the Australian Boomers coaching staff under Adam Caporn.

And while he reflected on his time at United with great pride, especially having coached legends of Aussie basketball such as Chris Goulding as well as Jock Landale and Matthew Dellavedova, Vickerman said he was excited at a new opportunity in joining the Japanese league.

"There was a number of opportunities that came up that were at a level that needed more investigation and then the further you got into it, there was an excitement about the opportunity to go and coach in another country again," he said on the basketball.com.au podcast.

"This game always has, for me, has been about taking the path that you haven't travelled before and doing something different and going to different places.

"Same as the one where we just won a championship with the Tigers and then the Singapore job came up and I was like 'that's what I want to go do, I want to go and be with the first year of a franchise and see what that's like'.

"Now in the first year of the B.League to go over there and test my abilities over there, I'm looking forward to it."