According to ESPN, sources, Brian Goorjian has inked a multi-year contract to take over as head coach of the Sydney Kings of the NBL.
According to sources, Goorjian, who is presently the head coach of the Australian Boomers, arrived in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon to finalize the conditions of his contract with the Kings. An announcement is expected on Wednesday.
Mahmoud Abdelfattah, who guided the Kings to a 13–15 record during the 2023–24 NBL season and finished in fifth place before being eliminated from title contention in their play-in game against the New Zealand Breakers, left the team less than a week after the appointment.
The Kings made the swift decision to hire a new head coach in order to avoid the problem they ran into previous off-season when they didn’t have one, which significantly hindered their ability to seriously interact with top local free agents.
Chase Buford led the Kings to consecutive championships prior to this NBL season.
With his signing in Sydney, the 70-year-old Goorjian makes his comeback to the team he guided to a three-peat while serving as head coach from 2003 to 2005.
After playing with the Melbourne Tigers, Goorjian quickly transitioned to coaching. During his time on the NBL sidelines, he led the Eastside Spectres, South East Melbourne Magic, Victoria Titans, Kings, South Dragons, and Illawarra Hawks.
News Corp was first to report on Goorjian agreeing to terms with Sydney.
Goorjian is the NBL’s all-time leader in games coached (803), games won (553), and is second all-time in winning percentage (68.9 percent) for those who’ve been at the helm for more than two games, only behind Buford (69.1 percent). The native of Glendale, California is a six-time NBL Champion and six-time NBL Coach of the Year.
Most recently, Goorjian was the head coach of the Bay Area Dragons in the East Asia Super League. Prior to that, he spent two seasons as head coach of the Hawks.
Goorjian did not coach domestically over the course of the 2023-24 NBL season to focus on his Australian national team duties ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Going into free agency, the Kings have Alex Toohey (Next Star), Angus Glover, DJ Hogg (mutual option), and Makuach Maluach (team option) contracted for the 2024-25 NBL season.
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