COLLEGE

Goorjian played college basketball at Pepperdine, As a freshman he entered Gary Colson’s program in 1973 and went on to play three varsity seasons for the Waves from 1973-74 through 1975-76 as a guard out of Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta, California.

He wore number 32 at Pepperdine and finished his varsity career with 71 games played, 199 points, 84 rebounds, 158 assists, 77 made field goals on 208 attempts for 37.0%, and 45 made free throws on 61 attempts for 73.8%, which worked out to career averages of 2.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.

In the 1973-74 season, Goorjian played 25 games for an 8-18 Pepperdine team that went 4-10 in the WCAC and finished tied for sixth under Colson.

He averaged 3.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game that season, shooting 28-for-85 from the field for 32.9% and 20-for-25 at the line for 80.0%, while totaling 76 points, 33 rebounds and 58 assists.

Pepperdine’s main frontcourt force that year was freshman Marcos Leite at 17.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, with Dick Skophammer and Allan Jones both at 14.1 points per game, and Goorjian worked in the backcourt rotation behind a team that averaged 64.7 points per game.

That 1973-74 group also played in the first season after Firestone Fieldhouse opened, and Leite produced some of the standout individual efforts of the year, including 26 points against Loyola Marymount and 21 rebounds against Nevada.

As a junior in 1974-75, Goorjian played all 24 games for a Pepperdine side that improved to 17-8 overall and 8-6 in the WCAC, finishing third again under Colson.

His role expanded, as he averaged 15.4 minutes, 3.1 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, and he finished with 75 points, 31 rebounds and 67 assists while shooting 30-for-76 from the field for 39.5% and 15-for-21 at the foul line for 71.4%.

That team scored 86.6 points per game, with Marlan Peet at 13.5 points per game leading a balanced attack, and Pepperdine also got strong production from Ollie Matson, Marcos Leite and Chris Thompson.

Pepperdine’s 1974-75 season included a 97-71 win over Missouri State and two wins over Nevada, and the Waves carried that momentum into an even bigger breakthrough the following year.

In his senior season in 1975-76, Goorjian played 22 games for the Waves and averaged 11.6 minutes, 2.2 points, 0.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

He totaled 48 points, 20 rebounds and 33 assists that season, shooting 19-for-47 from the field for 40.4% and 10-for-15 at the line for 66.7%.

Pepperdine went 22-6 overall, finished 10-2 in conference play, won the WCAC regular-season title under Colson and ended the year ranked 20th in the final AP Poll.

That 1975-76 squad was built around Marcos Leite, who averaged 18.7 points and 10.0 rebounds, Dennis Johnson, who averaged 15.7 points in his only Pepperdine season before turning pro, and Ollie Matson, and Leite won WCAC Player of the Year honors while Leite, Johnson and Matson all made the All-WCC first team.

One of the signature moments of that season came when a then-record Firestone Fieldhouse crowd of 4,500 watched Pepperdine upset number three UNLV 93-91.

Pepperdine reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Colson and opened the 1976 West Regional with an 87-77 win over Memphis in Tucson, with Leite scoring 34 points in the rematch after Memphis had beaten the Waves earlier in the season.

The run ended in the regional semifinal at Pauley Pavilion, where UCLA beat Pepperdine 70-61, though it was still a one-point game midway through the second half before the Bruins pulled clear, and Leite and Johnson scored 16 points each in the loss.

Goorjian’s college career closed with that NCAA appearance after three varsity seasons at Pepperdine from 1973-74 to 1975-76, all under Gary Colson, with the Waves moving from an 8-18 season to a 17-8 season and then to a 22-6 conference championship team.

AWARDS

- 6x NBL championship winning coach
- Member of NBL 25th Anniversary Team (named 2003).

COACHING HISTORY

Goorjian moved into coaching near the end of his playing career, working as an assistant coach with Geelong in 1985 before taking his first senior head-coaching position with the Ballarat Miners. He became Ballarat’s inaugural SEABL head coach for the 1986 season and led the Miners to the SEABL South Conference championship in 1987, the club’s second season in the competition.

Goorjian entered the NBL as head coach of the Eastside Melbourne Spectres in 1988. Eastside missed the playoffs in his first two seasons before finishing second in 1990 and reaching the semi-finals. The Spectres again finished second in 1991 and advanced to the Grand Final, where they were defeated by defending champion Perth. His four seasons with Eastside produced a 63–44 record.

When Eastside merged with the Southern Melbourne Saints to create the South East Melbourne Magic in 1992, Goorjian remained as head coach. The Magic finished first at 20–4 in their inaugural season and defeated the Melbourne Tigers to win the championship, giving Goorjian his first NBL title and his first Lindsay Gaze Trophy as NBL Coach of the Year.

South East Melbourne reached the playoffs in each of Goorjian’s seven seasons with the club. After three consecutive semi-final exits from 1993 to 1995, the Magic defeated Melbourne again to win the 1996 championship. Goorjian did not win Coach of the Year in 1996, as previously stated. His next two Coach of the Year awards came in 1997 and 1998, when the Magic reached consecutive Grand Finals but lost to Melbourne in 1997 and Adelaide in 1998. Across his Magic tenure, Goorjian compiled a 167–58 record.

The Magic and North Melbourne Giants merged after the 1998 season to form the Victoria Titans, with Goorjian continuing as head coach. Victoria reached the Grand Final in each of its first two seasons, losing 2–1 to Adelaide in 1999 and 2–0 to Perth in 2000. The Titans then finished first in the regular season in both 2000/01 and 2001/02, with Goorjian winning his fourth NBL Coach of the Year award in 2002. He finished his four-season Titans tenure with a 92–47 record.

Goorjian’s Titans tenure ended amid the club’s financial problems in 2002. The organisation entered administration and was sold to a group associated with the former North Melbourne Giants, with the new ownership group choosing not to retain him despite Victoria having finished first in the regular season and Goorjian having just been named Coach of the Year.

Goorjian was appointed head coach of the Australian Boomers in late 2001, becoming the first foreign-born coach to hold the position. His first national-team tenure included FIBA Oceania Championship victories in 2003, 2005 and 2007, ninth place at the 2004 Athens Olympics, gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, ninth place at the 2006 FIBA World Championship and seventh place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Basketball Australia records him as coaching the Boomers for 115 games during this first tenure.

Goorjian joined the Sydney Kings for the 2002/03 NBL season and immediately led the club to a 22–8 regular-season record and its first championship, sweeping Perth 2–0 in the Grand Final. Sydney repeated as champion in 2004 and 2005, making Goorjian the first NBL coach to win three consecutive championships.

Sydney reached five Grand Finals during Goorjian’s six-season first stint, winning the championships in 2003, 2004 and 2005 before losing the 2006 title series to Melbourne and returning to the Grand Final in 2008. The Kings went 27–3 during the 2007/08 regular season, with Goorjian winning his fifth NBL Coach of the Year award before Melbourne defeated Sydney in the championship series. He finished the six seasons with a 165–61 record.

Goorjian signed a three-year deal with the South Dragons on April 1, 2008 and took over a team that had won only five of 30 games the previous season. The Dragons improved to 22–8, finished first and defeated Melbourne 3–2 in the 2009 Grand Final series. Goorjian collected his sixth NBL championship and sixth Coach of the Year award, with the Dragons becoming the first NBL team to go from last place to champion in consecutive seasons. The club withdrew from the NBL during the following off-season.

Across Goorjian’s original NBL coaching run from 1988 to 2009, his teams made 19 consecutive playoff appearances from 1990 onward and reached 13 Grand Final series. He coached 735 games for 514 wins over that period, a winning rate of approximately 70 percent, with six championships and six Coach of the Year awards. He was inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013.

After leaving the NBL, Goorjian joined the Chinese national-team program in 2009 as an assistant to new head coach Guo Shiqiang. He also began working with Dongguan, initially in a development and advisory capacity before becoming the Leopards’ senior head coach for the 2010/11 CBA season. Dongguan reached the playoffs in his first season in charge and remained a regular postseason team during his extended spell with the club.

Dongguan reached the CBA semi-finals during the 2013/14 season, with Goorjian becoming the first foreign coach to receive the CBA Coach of the Year honour. He also worked as an assistant coach for the Southern Division at the CBA All-Star Game in 2012 and 2014. Before the 2014/15 season, Dongguan restructured the staff with Li Qun becoming head coach and Goorjian moving into an executive coaching role, ending his six-year association with the club after that campaign.

Goorjian joined the Guangdong Southern Tigers as an assistant coach in 2015, choosing the role after receiving other CBA head-coaching offers. He spent the 2015/16 season working under Du Feng before moving to the Shanghai Sharks in 2016, where his role included player development, talent identification, scouting and game analysis. He remained with Shanghai through the 2017/18 season.

Xinjiang appointed Goorjian as head coach in May 2018. During the 2018/19 season his role changed and he became an assistant when Adiljan Jun took over the team in December. Xinjiang subsequently reached the CBA Finals before being swept 4–0 by Guangdong.

Goorjian remained in the CBA for the 2019/20 season after joining the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions coaching staff in July 2019. Li Chunjiang remained head coach, with Goorjian appointed as the club’s foreign coach as part of an expanded staff. His time in China and the wider Asian basketball system ultimately stretched across more than a decade, while Basketball Australia also records him as having spent two years working with the Japanese national team during his post-Beijing period overseas.

Goorjian returned to the NBL on June 23, 2020 when he was appointed head coach of the Illawarra Hawks. Illawarra had finished last the previous season and had not reached the playoffs since 2017, but Goorjian guided the Hawks to third place and the semi-finals in 2020/21 before finishing second at 19–9 and again reaching the semi-finals in 2021/22. His two seasons produced a 39–29 record.

In November 2020, Goorjian was also reappointed as Australian Boomers head coach, initially through the Tokyo Olympics and 2023 FIBA World Cup. Australia won its first Olympic men’s basketball medal at the postponed Tokyo Games in 2021, defeating Slovenia 107–93 in the bronze-medal game after victories in its first four games included a 97–59 quarter-final win over Argentina.

The 2022 FIBA Asia Cup championship should not be treated as a tournament coached by Goorjian. Mike Kelly served as Australia’s head coach at that event while Goorjian remained the senior Boomers head coach, with Australia completing an undefeated championship run under Kelly.

After two seasons with Illawarra, Goorjian declined his third-year option in May 2022 and moved into a special-advisor role in basketball operations as Jacob Jackomas became head coach. Goorjian had recently passed 800 NBL games and left the Hawks after consecutive semi-final appearances.

On May 12, 2022, Goorjian signed a two-year contract as the inaugural head coach of Hong Kong’s Bay Area Dragons. Playing as a guest team in the 2022/23 PBA Commissioner’s Cup, Bay Area went 10–2 in the elimination round, defeated Rain or Shine in the quarter-final and San Miguel 3–1 in the semi-finals, then pushed Barangay Ginebra to seven games in the championship series before losing the decider 114–99 in front of 54,589 spectators. Bay Area became the first PBA guest team since 1980 to reach the finals.

The Dragons then competed at the 2023 EASL Champions Week, where they lost their opening game to Seoul SK Knights before defeating Utsunomiya Brex and beating the Ryukyu Golden Kings 90–70 in the third-place game. Their result was therefore third place rather than an EASL Final Four appearance. Bay Area was disbanded before the 2023/24 season, with Goorjian remaining associated with EASL as a league ambassador for the remaining term of his contract.

Goorjian continued his second Boomers tenure at the 2023 FIBA World Cup before coaching Australia at his fourth Olympics in Paris in 2024. The Boomers reached the quarter-finals and led Serbia by as many as 24 points before losing in overtime, finishing sixth. Goorjian stepped down from the national-team position after the Games, ending a Boomers coaching career that had included four Olympics, two World Cups, Commonwealth Games gold and Australia’s first Olympic men’s medal.

On March 6, 2024, Goorjian returned to the Sydney Kings on a three-year agreement, 16 years after his first stint with the club ended. Sydney finished the 2024/25 regular season fifth at 16–13 before its season ended with a 95–88 loss to Adelaide in the Play-In Qualifier.

A milestone attributed to January 2025 requires clarification. The Melbourne game that month marked Goorjian’s 850th combined NBL appearance as a player and coach, including 24 games as a Melbourne Tigers player and 825 coaching appearances before the game. His actual 850th NBL game as a head coach came against Adelaide in Canberra on December 17, 2025, when he entered the game with a 578–271 coaching record.

Goorjian led Sydney to a league-best 24–9 record in 2025/26 and received the Lindsay Gaze Trophy for a record seventh time, adding to his previous Coach of the Year awards in 1992, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2008 and 2009. Sydney entered the finals on an 11-game winning streak and eventually defeated Adelaide 3–2 in the Championship Series, winning the deciding game in overtime and giving Goorjian his seventh NBL championship.

Following the 2026 championship, Goorjian held the NBL records for championships won by a head coach, games coached and coaching victories. He had coached 873 NBL games for 598 wins, a winning percentage of approximately 68.5 percent, with seven championships and seven Coach of the Year awards.