Should we be worried about Japan “poaching” NBL coaches?

Basketball is booming in Japan, and the NBL is starting to feel its impact.

Earlier this month, the Brisbane Bullets announced head coach Andrej Lemanis will coach in Japan instead of re-signing with the team. The Japanese deal is expected to be close to double his previous salary and one no NBL team could match.

In addition to this, it’s well known amongst basketball circles that the Perth Wildcats five-time championship winning coach Trevor Gleeson has been offered a very lucrative deal to coach in Japan next season. 

In the past, we’ve seen former head coaches Shawn Dennis and Paul Henare move from the NBL the Japanese B.League, Japan’s top tier basketball competition but in the past, it focused on out of contract coaches like Dennis and Henare. The fact Japanese teams are now luring NBL coaches away from their respective teams begs the question, does the NBL need to develop a strategy to keep its elite coaches in Australia?

When Japan was selected to host the 2020 Olympic Games an influx of funding was injected into sports, and with basketball one of Asia’s fastest-growing sports, it benefitted greatly. 

At the same time, Japanese players like Rui Hacamura and Yuta Watanabe both achieve success in the NBA and an interest in the game reaches a fever pitch in Japan.

Losing Lemanis and Gleeson, the greatest coaches we’ve seen in Australia over the past decade, you would think would create a huge hole in Australian basketball.

While Lemanis built an NBL dynasty from scratch with the New Zealand Breakers, winning three straight titles before he leaving to coach the Australia Boomers (it should also be noted the roster he recruited and his former assistant Dean Vickerman, added a fourth one year later) Gleeson stockpiled five NBL championships with the Perth Wildcats.

Lemanis success followed him to the National team guiding Australia to equal their highest-ever finishes at both the Olympics and FIBA World Cup.

“I’m proud of what we have been able to achieve over the past five seasons,” Lemanis said.

“Every journey has an expiry date and so it is time for me, and my family, to take on new experiences and challenges”.

Japan’s B.League consists of 20 teams this season, if we see Gleeson join Lemanis as suspected, four B.League teams will be led by coaches with NBL experience next season with former NZ Breakers coach Paul Henare and the 2016 NBL coach of the year Shawn Dennis already coaching in the B.League.

Since leaving Australia Dennis has received numerous offers to return to coach NBL teams but has decided to stay put each time, partially because of the money, but also because of the job security, Asia provides through a sheer number of coaching opportunities when compared to Australia.

“Some of the countries certainly pay more than Australia, but you have to look at the fact that there are such limited opportunities to be a full-time coach in Australia. Next year there will be 10 NBL teams. That means ten head coaching jobs, maybe 20 or so assistant roles, and assistants are generally not earning a great deal” said Dennis.

“Being a head coach is very volatile because you can be fired so easily. You have to maximize certain situations, and I feel this is a big reason (Australian coaches) end up staying. Especially the China, Japan and Korean markets” said Dennis.

Behind increase marketing and attracting many major corporate sponsorships, the B.League has grown exponentially. It now attracts NBA experienced imports and players of equal or better talent to those we see in the NBL. NBA journeymen Devin Ebanks, Nick Fazekas and the best defensive player in the NBL last season, D.J. Newbill have all recently played in the B.League as examples.

With the growth of the league and its increasing talent teams are looking for international coaches to not only help them win a championship but to help develop their homegrown coaches. 

“The success of Australia on the international scene and also the success of our players means the NBL is now considered one of the best leagues in the world, and this is providing Australian coaches with more opportunities outside of Australia than ever before. I was noticed from having success in the NBL, and so was Paulie (Henare) because of the work he did with the Breakers and the Tall Blacks.” said Dennis.

Behind closed doors, it’s known Japanese teams are all in the market for an Australian head coach. Not only are they considered ahead of the game in their knowledge, communication styles and ability to recruit talent, but they’re also coming across cheap. Dollar for dollar Japanese teams won’t find many better coaches than those plying their trade in the NBL right now for a similar price tag.

The has also been a strong basketball connection between Australia and Japan developing for many years. It stems back to the demise of the Newcastle Falcons in 1996 which left then head coach Tom Wiseman without a job. Wiseman would continue his coaching career in Korea and Japan for the next 20 years, a stint which even included coaching Japan’s national men’s team from 2010-2012.

Over the past 20 years, Wiseman has introduced Australian basketball talent to many Japanese teams. In 2011 he connected the Shiga Lakestars with two time NBL championship coach Al Westover. Westover, who won two NBL titles with the Chris Anstey led Melbourne Tigers in 2006 and 2008 coached the Lakestars for three seasons before his retirement.

Wiseman facilitated numerous coaching clinics for Japanese coaches to learn from. Wiseman often brought over former Illawarra Hawks coach Rob Beveridge as well as Shawn Dennis who was coached by Wiseman as a player and acted as his assistant during his time in Newcastle.

When the Townsville Crocodiles folded and Dennis was left without a team, Wiseman was quick to put him in touch with the Lakestars, where he stayed on as head coach for the next five years.

Does a rapidly growing basketball league with a need for quality coaches pose a threat to the development of basketball in Australia?

If Japan and other Asian leagues are offering coaching opportunities with better job security and higher pay, could this create a hole in Australia’s coaching ranks?

Would that hole in coaching talent be comparable to effects felt by the drop in playing talent when Australia’s best players all chose to play overseas instead of Australia during the 2000s?

During the late 1980s and 1990s, Australia’s best talent played in Australia, outside of the talented few who made their mark in the NBA, ie. Luc Longley, Chris Anstey and Shane Heal. The core of our playing talent, plied their trade in the NBL and as a nation, we saw the game flourish across the country during the NBL’s “glory years” and at the same time, the Australian Boomers enjoyed a period of success unmatched to this day.

NBL games were played in front of 15,000 crowds and the Boomers finished in the top four in three Olympic games over a 12 year period (1988, 1996 and 2000).

During the next fifteen years, we saw a mass exodus as Australia’s most talented players choose to play in Europe over the NBL.

Australian Boomers David Andersen, Joe Ingles, Nathan Jawai, Brad Newley, Matthew Neilsen, to name a few all left their NBL teams to play in the higher paying European leagues. The result, a decrease in playing talent as well as revenue saw the league come almost come to an end if it wasn’t for the lifeline thrown by Larry Kestleman purchasing the league in 2015.

Through 2001-2015 the money, standard and interest in the NBL dwindled and culminated with a lacklustre fifteen year stretch of Australian Boomer’s mediocrity.

During that time Australia’s best result was a seventh-place finish at the Olympics and a 10th place finish at the FIBA World Championships. 

It wasn’t due to a lack of NBA talent with Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, David Andersen, Aron Baynes and Matthew Dellavedova were all playing for Australia while also playing in the NBA during this time.

Behind Kestleman’s millions, the NBL has returned to the success it achieved during the 1990s and it has seen our key players (outside of those with NBA deals) once again playing primarily in the NBL. Jock Landale, Chris Goulding and Ryan Broekhoff all played in Australia this season and all are expected to be a part of the Boomers Olympic team.

With our best talent playing in Australia for the past five years, we’ve seen both the NBL and Boomers program return to the levels of success it achieved in the 1990s. 

But, can it be as simple as if our best talent is overseas, be it, coaches or players, basketball will struggle in Australia?

Bill Tomlinson won a WNBL championship with the Sydney Flames and coached the Hobart Devils and Sydney Kings in the NBL. When the Kings folded in 2010, Tomlinson continued coaching in China and has seen the interest in Australian coaches grow rapidly over recent years and isn’t surprised by the increase of Aussie coaches being lured away by Asian teams.

“Australian coach’s have a very good reputation for being hard workers and low maintenance. You really can’t explain how many different levels of Basketball in Asia and the number of opportunities there are” said Tomlinson

Japan has many levels as well Division I down to Division III, and all of the coaches and players get paid. In China they have the CBA then the NBL, their second-tier league and then every large company has a team. Every city has a team, and in some large cities, even your street may have a team, and most of them are getting paid more than the head coaches and assistants in the NBL” said Tomlinson.

Tomlinson however, doesn’t feel the NBL will suffer due to the sheer volume of opportunities Asia presents right now.

“I don’t think it hurts Australian basketball as we don’t have enough full-time coaching position right now. Asian coach’s normally over coach and have a playbook as thick as the Boston Celtics so there is a shortfall of coaches in Asia that think practically, keep it simple and do it well and Aussies tend to do well at that” said Tomlinson.

Tomlinson noted Australia currently has more elite-level coaches than teams. So losing NBL coaches to Japan shouldn’t see a negative impact due to the fact there are so many talented coaches waiting for their opportunity to step into the national league and replace them.

Asia could potentially provide the chance for high-level coaches in Australia, who are unable to secure one of the ten NBL head coaching roles, the chance to continue and develop their coaching abilities while getting paid comfortable wages while they wait for coaching opportunities to open up back home.

“I see it giving our coaches an alternative. The more Coach’s we have in full-time employment, the better. I would hope that Australian coaches moving into Asia would mean more opportunities in the NBL as head coach’s or assistant Coach’s.” said Tomlinson.

Shawn Dennis, who recently moved from Shiga to Nagoya, a city double the size with double the resources, agrees competition for the services of Aussie coaches can only help Aussie Hoops.

“I don’t think it hurts Australian basketball and more talks about the strength and recognition that Australian basketball is getting. Japan can see the opportunity in getting some of Aussie coaches here because it will only help grow their own coaches so it’s a double benefit for them. It’ll only keep growing here.” said Dennis.

“Next year, there will be 10 NBL teams. That means 10 head coaching jobs, so of course, coaches need to look outside of Australia. This is how I ended up over here in Japan. There were no jobs in Australia for me so I had to take what was offered. I was lucky and got a good opportunity here in Japan. We have Paulie Henare who was like me and needed a job. Because of the great job he did with the Tall Blacks he was noticed and received an opportunity” said Dennis.

While the demand for Australia’s coaching talent is growing, it seems there are able young coaches ready to step up and replace names like Lemanis and Gleeson.

Young aspiring coaches like Basketball Australia’s Centre Of Excellence head coach Adam Caporn, Matt Nielsen who coaches in the G-League or NBL assistant coaches like C.J. Bruton (Brisbane), Jacob Jakomas (Illawarra) and Judd Flavell (South East Melbourne) are all being eyed by NBL teams as candidates for their next head coach.

While we may lose some of our best coaching minds to overseas competitions, there seems to be no shortage of coaching talent here in Australia. This seems to be the difference between what happened in the NBL playing ranks in the 2000s.

Competition is a good thing, and the opportunities created for our coaching talent, it seems, will only deliver progress. This seems likely to see Australian basketball continue to thrive and hopefully be responsible for producing our first Australian born NBA head coach.