MELBOURNE (Australia) - Wins and losses usually define a coach's career in international basketball yet for Brian Goorjian, there is much more that comes to mind.
Goorjian, who holds the distinction as the only coach to lead the Boomers to the podium at a FIBA Basketball World Cup or the Olympics, which he did in 2021 when guiding the team to the bronze medal at the Tokyo Games, has parted ways the Australia's national team. The 71-year-old will now fully focus on his job as the coach of the Sydney Kings in Australia's NBL.
His departure has led to a chorus of praise from those that know him, be they players or colleagues.
"There’s no coach I've ever met who in such a short amount of time makes you want to run through a brick wall for them," said Jack McVeigh, a player Goorjian selected this summer and gave him his Olympic debut. McVeigh, a star in the NBL with champions Tasmania, repaid the faith by averaging 9.5 points per game for Australia in France.
Australia legend Luc Longley, a three-time NBA champion with Chicago, said of Goorjian: "Try finding someone in basketball that he doesn’t know, hasn't helped or been around, hasn't beaten in a play-off game, hasn’t lost to, hasn’t had a fight with in the hallway.
“He's unapologetic. He's an American who has embraced the Australian way, added to it, colored it in and he's remarkable for his versatility."
Goorjian, who hails from California, moved to Australia in 1977 to play for the Melbourne Tigers, a team coached at the time by FIBA Hall of Famer Lindsay Gaze.
Andrew Gaze, Lindsay's son and another FIBA Hall of Famer who played at five Olympics, said of Goorjian: "Brian’s legacy extends to players that have represented Australia even when he wasn't coaching the national team; his legacy includes the development of the game as a player, a coach and an advocate.
"It's important to recognize his contribution to the Australian scene as a coach but I think that is only part of the complete story of Brian Goorjian and the significant impact he's had on the overall game and the contribution he's made to the lives of many." Goorjian's time at the helm of the Boomers will always be viewed in a positive light.
His first and longer stint began in late 2001, when he took over after the team lost to New Zealand in the FIBA Oceania Championship and failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Indianapolis. Goorjian had a young Andrew Bogut in the team that struggled at the 2004 Olympics and finished ninth.
He held the reins through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he gave two youngsters, Pat Mills and Joe Ingles, their debuts. That team began with defeats to Croatia and Argentina, yet then beat Iran, Russia and Lithuania to reach the Quarter-Finals. The heavily-favored USA, who had also beaten Goorjian's Australia in the Round of 16 at the 2006 World Cup, eliminated them again.
Goorjian's time as head coach of the Boomers was over, though the culture he had instilled remained, as did the players he had brought into the fold, players that would lead the national team for a decade and a half and help it cement its status as one of the top teams in the world.
Those who thought, including Goorjian himself, that his time as Australia coach was over were mistaken, although it was quite a while before he was on the Boomers' national team scene again.
His second stint began in November, 2020, as a replacement for Brett Brown, who was supposed to coach the team at the Tokyo Games but had to relinquish the opportunity after the Summer Games were postponed due to the covid pandemic.
With vocal support from the players in the team, Basketball Australia put Goorjian in charge and several months later, he guided the Boomers to the bronze medal in Tokyo.
Australia won their first four games, including a Quarter-Final against Argentina, 97-59.
In that game, the last with Argentina for the legend Luis Scola, Goorjian showed his awareness for everything that was good about international basketball and important for the game by standing up and walking onto the court to applaud the player. He even hugged him. The game stopped as his players and staff followed suit in what was a remarkable show of respect for a player that was had done much for international basketball.
In the next game, a Semi-Final against the USA, Australia opened up a double-digit lead only for their nemesis to come back and win, putting the Boomers into a Bronze Medal Game showdown with Slovenia and the hottest player in the game, Luka Doncic.
"I'm not ashamed to say I love the guy" - 2004 Olympic player Jason Smith
Goorjian coached Australia to a 107-93 victory. For Australia, it left like a gold medal because the eternal drought had finally come to an end. After coaching the team at the 2023 World Cup, in Okinawa, Japan, "Goorj" very nearly got the team to the Semi-Finals at this year's Olympics in Paris only for a Nikola Jokic-inspired Serbia to come from behind and win their Quarter-Final after overtime.
Though Australia came up short, Goorjian had ushered in a new era, bringing rising stars Josh Giddey and Dyson, and Tasmania stars McVeigh and Will Magnay, to the Olympics for the first time.
Jason Smith, who played for Goorjian at the 2004 Olympics and is now Basketball Australia’s Executive General Manager of High Performance, said of his former coach: "Goorj has the ability to connect with people and identify whether he needs to connect with their head or connect with their heart, he's got the unique ability to say the right thing at the right time...
"I'm not ashamed to say I love the guy."
And that is a sentiment shared with a lot of people Down Under, be they players, colleagues for fans.
FIBA