SA Footy

From the guy whose Magic teams mastered the art of 'hacking'...

Goorjian 'dirty' with Smyth jibe
By Nikki Osborne
December 12, 2005

SYDNEY Kings coach Brian Goorjian was disgusted by a time-out address captured by Fox Sports from Adelaide coach Phil Smyth that incited a spiteful last quarter.

In front of the cameras on Saturday night, Smyth suggested to his players and the viewing audience that the Kings were playing dirty and that his side should give as good as he thought it was getting.

"I thought it was disgusting," Goorjian said. "This team is very similar to his, it is an offensive juggernaut that runs up and down the floor and exchanges baskets.

"What they had going on out there in the fourth quarter and to be saying that on the camera to the viewing audience, I thought it was off.

"And that might be the problem with having microphones in the huddle, you are sending a message and (in this case) that message is an opinion, one that we certainly don't have and the referees didn't have and I don't think the commentators had either."

Goorjian, whose side comfortably won despite a late comeback by the 36ers, was unaware of the incident at the time but watched the Fox Sports replay yesterday morning.

Sydney led all night but Adelaide closed the gap to 10 points before subsiding with a series of ill-tempered fouls.

"I obviously couldn't hear what was being said at the time but obviously they went about the fourth-quarter comeback in a very physical manner," Goorjian said.

"When we got that lead they had to come back in some form and they elected to get physical and I think we did a good job of staying focused and not losing it ... I am quite confident in the style of defence and the integrity with which we are playing."


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The Kings, triple NBL champion, has won 15 consecutive games and is one victory from equalling the league's longest winning streak.

I gotta admit, I have always despised this bloke, and I think he's always had an issue with Phil Smyth ... Why the so-called experts continually refer to this guy as the NBL's greatest coach is beyond me ... All of his successes have come with season favourite lineups that have been handed to him (and even then he failed with several of them) unlike the General who went about forming his own squad that won 3 titles against the odds!!

I already disliked the Kings for being the NBL Lovechild, but ever since Bobo the Clown's been in charge it's moved to pure hatred!!

What do people expect with this guy, he's an idiot. Remember what happened here a couple years back with him, he went right off for no reason what-so-ever at all (not quite, but I think you know what I mean).

Despite Brian's success, the teams he has coached have played an ordinary style of basketball and those teams have fallen by the wayside not long after his tenure, despite their success. As an example of the product has to be somewhat entertaining, the '94 NBA finals between New York and Houston sent shudders through NBA headquarters in the first season post Jordan because of New York's boring style of basketball.
The whole situation of Phil Smyth's brief tenure as coach of Australia obviously has something to do with their frosty relationship but the thing that irked me about that whole situation was that Phil Smyth was ridiculed in some quarters for us losing the World Championship qualifiers to New Zealand in '01 (I think?) but in those '02 World Championships New Zealand ended up finishing fourth, which is just as high as we've ever finished in any major championship (no matter who's been coaching) and it was also two places higher than a certain team that was loaded with NBA All Stars.

i hate the kings and i hate this clown. it will be a crying shame if the kings win it again....

I love how Boti Nagy takes a shot at the Kings or Goorjian in every column he writes.

The General's (Great man that he is!! ) response can be found here: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/co ... 28,00.html

ORDoubleBlues wrote:As an example of the product has to be somewhat entertaining, the '94 NBA finals between New York and Houston sent shudders through NBA headquarters in the first season post Jordan because of New York's boring style of basketball.

Just when I'd put that series out of my mind...

The whole situation of Phil Smyth's brief tenure as coach of Australia obviously has something to do with their frosty relationship but the thing that irked me about that whole situation was that Phil Smyth was ridiculed in some quarters for us losing the World Championship qualifiers to New Zealand

All the critics conveniently overlooked that this was now the post-Gaze/Bradtke/Vlahov/Longley/Heal era.

On top of those retirements, we were crippled by injury.

And could only put a second string Boomers team on the floor.

Phil got shafted.

Boy Goorj didn't exactly set the world on fire with his coaching at the Athens Olympics.

Left Maher, Rogers and Catt to rot on the bench. WTF was Saville doing getting more minutes than Catt? And CJ Bruton? Pftt...

Oh look - Heal jacked up another three...

Critics (other than Boti) Australia-wide were quite miffed by Goorjians reluctance to use a hot handed Maher ... I recall reading, copying and sending to some mates a piece off nba.com at the time, written by an NBA talent scout which was scathing in it's appraisal of his coaching, and particularly the minimal minutes he gave to Mahersy who he claimed was clearly the biggest threat to the US team ... For memory Goorjian preferred CJ Bruton who was obviously a skilled brick-layer masquerading as a basketballer!!

Would in be un-Australian to go for the Allstars v Australia because Goorjian is coaching the Australians and Phil Smyth the Allstars?

Constance_Perm wrote:For memory Goorjian preferred CJ Bruton who was obviously a skilled brick-layer masquerading as a basketballer!!

Clearly out of his depth.

Did he have stage-fright or something?

A few years back the LA Clippers ( ) were interested in Maher but nothing came of it.

Very hypothetical I know, but nothing will convince me otherwise that if Phil had access to the funds, the players and the NBL lean that Goorjian has always had, he would put together an outfit that would beat his adversary near on everytime!!

without a doubt there, Constance

I agree with you too Constance. Those flags Adelaide won going head to head with Goorjians teams were won pretty comprehensively with teams which appeared to be even on paper. It is interesting that when Adelaide had Dunlap as the coach - who used very similar tactics and coaching methods to Goorjians the sixers bombed out in the finals (although the injury to Davis in 94 didn't help).