After taking ownership of the Illawarra Hawks NBL licence this week new owners Dorry Kordahi, Michael Proctor and former NBA executive Bryan Colangelo have wasted no time in remodelling the club with a new vision with six-time NBL championship winning coach Brian Goorjian expected to be a part of that.
The team who have already dropped “Illawarra” from it’s moniker and announced it play games in cities without NBL teams ie. Canberra, Newcastle and West Sydney in addition to Wollongong and made it clear that they would be moving on from Former Hawks coach Matt Flinn.
Flinn, who was made redundant when the club went in to liquidation under former owner Simon Stratford, coached the Hawks to a 5-22 record in his first year as an NBL head coach, finishing a league last.
Flinn had been tipped to return as coach as part of Lamelo Ball’s initial bid to buy the team which was outbid by the team of Kordahi, Proctor and Colangelo.
Kordahi meet with former Hawks general manager Mat Campbell to understand the current Hawks coaching structure this week before deciding to go in a different direction.
“I don’t want to lose people that have been in the club for many years, but we need to go in with fresh eyes,” Kordahi said.
“See what we need, what we’re missing and who we need in what position.”
Goorjian’s announcement is planned for Monday with the appointment of the winningest coach in NBL history set to give the Hawks a powerful recruiting tool as free agency ramps up this month.
The move sending a message that the organisation are going to spend money and build a team around quality people, which will give potential free agent signings comfort knowing the new ownership group have the funds to do things properly and are for the long haul.
Multiple NBL players are now engaged in discussions with the Hawks about playing for the soon to be announced Goorjian, some who had already given verbal agreements to other clubs have now asked for more time to allow for discussions with the Hawks organisation.
The legendary 66-year-old coach who also steered the national program for eight years, shares close ties with Kordahi who was a part owner of the Sydney Kings during their “three-peat” championship run under Goorjian’s leadership from 2003 to 2005.
He later coached the South Dragons to the 2009 before their withdrew from the league and since then he’s spent his time coaching in China with the Dongguan Leopards (2009-2015), Guangdong Tigers (2015-2016) and Shanghai Sharks (2016-Present).
Goorjian’s coaching roles in China which have always been much more lucrative than coaching opportunities in Australia aren’t as attractive as they once were after COVID-19.
The unrest in China as well as this being a role that would be a higher paying role than a regular head coach in the NBL, made this an opportunity too good for Goorjian to pass up.
Despite based in China for the past 9 years, Goorjian has been a regular visitor down combining visiting family who are still based here and yearly coaching clinics.
Goorjian has previous had discussions with Melbourne, Sydney and other NBL teams about a return as head coach but an agreement hadn’t been financially beneficial enough for Goorjian to leave China.
Two-time NBA Executive of the Year, and Hawks consortium advisor, Bryan Colangelo told NBL.com last week that the NBL was a league suited to dual coaching and managerial roles, something that is thought would be a new challenge for Goorjian, enticing enough to see him back on Australian shores.
“We’re preparing now to potentially make some important and vital basketball decisions on the near-term horizon,” Colangelo told NBL Overtime.
“We’re looking to decide quickly what’s going to happen with the basketball operation. Whoever we ultimately put in that position as head coach, that role is really going to be coach and management of the basketball team itself.” said Colangelo.
“Generally I would say the model where the coach and management are one position hasn’t worked great in the NBA but I think in this league, where there’s nine teams and a smaller pool of domestic players [it can].
“We’re going to be looking for whoever that person is to have a lot of input and say as to how the roster’s constructed, the style of play and where we want to take things with the organisation.\ We’re going to do what’s right and necessary, provide the resources, provide the leeway, but make the right decision in terms of who that person’s going to be to lead the charge basketball-wise.”
If Hawks management are able to announce the signing of the most successful coach in the history of Australian basketball as their first move, it hints at an exciting season ahead for “Hawk Heads” who are still coming to terms with the news the team would play fewer games in Wollongong and drop Illawarra from it’s the franchise name.
Colangelo noted this was something that would be a positive move for the team and it’s fans… even those based in Illawarra.
“Honestly [dropping the name] was something that was driven perhaps more by the league,” he said.
“We’ve talked about our desires to increase the fan-base and increase the ability for people to jump on board with being a Hawks fan but, with respect to Wollongong, there’s no question our primary intention is to stay here and embrace it as our home community.
“Wollongong is home and we look forward to remaining here and no one should be fretting that we’re on the way out of town.” said Colangelo.
The Hawks organisation will remain in Wollongong and has no plans to move it’s base despite the obvious venue changes the team will announce during the coming NBL season.
Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.
