Good news IMO.

My only concern is that we just don't get the Boomers together as a team to play in thsi country very often. I'd love to see them play more frequently and wuith a coach based OS, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

PS: Pity they have not yet updated their website!

REALLY

We didn't he get the normal 8 year deal?

i can see it now
"With the x pick of the NBA Draft,the San Antonio Spurs select Patrick Mills"

a major part of reform was to have the boomers/opals playing more games in oz,so as to get back in touch with grass roots ball.
are we going to see more of mr brown or is it going to be the assistants job in oz ??
(i hope not,who ever it is)

if it can be done it is great move, one of the real positives by b/a and not the last i hope !!

The whisper out of BA is that Brown got the job because he was able to put up the million-dollar guarantee that the team would continue to exist.

PS In honour of Brett Brown's alluringly alliterative name, I propose the Boomers be known henceforth as the 'Broomers'.

(Mod: For the guarantee joke, not the Broomers one!)

I can see the headlines now Bo,

"Broomers sweep series against NZ"

Thats a Brad joke...

Kent,

It's a pity San Antonio picked up Hill last year otherwise that might ahve been a genuine possibility.

Article on what Brown likes about Australia

http://www.nba.com/spurs/features/090210_brown.html

Thanks for the link Avv - I didn't know about Bobbinhead but now I think I might have to check it out next time I make it to NSW.

I'm hopeful for the Broomers era of basketball. Brown has had the opportunity to learn from the best at the Spurs for the last 6 years. You'd think that would give him some good ideas about how to mesh our NBA talent with local players and develop some effective team play on both ends of the court (this was sadly lacking in Beijing and I think the main limiting factor on why we didn't go deeper in the tournament).

I think this is a slap in the face to Goorjian & another error of judgement from BA. Just as Goorjian was getting the right players together & putting the systems in place, someone else is given the head job. If Goorjian takes a lucrative job OS, BA will be to blame for giving him reason to leave Australia.

Make Goorjian assistant - everyone's happy.

I really can't see Goorj taking a job as an assistant coach ever. He's way too dominant a personality and is used to having his own way with his teams. It'll be interesting to see who the assistants are (please not Joyce!)

I'd like to see Bevo as assistant...

Good appointment The Goorg has had his time . He didnt have the thing to get the mix right and creativity to challenge the stronger nations.
No we dont want him as a assistant either

Bevo and Stacks would have to be looked at for those roles

Oh please.
More of the same.
No thanks.
I hope someone can afford to fly BB to here often or all of the players to BB.
Whilst BB's track record in SAntonio is great, I fail to see what he has over any other local applicant here.
Interesting decision.

Not stacker for Christs sake

Possibly done as much for publicity's sake (for april 7), not only did he have nba connections, but a new coach looks good with a new league.

Good choice none the less, however his credentials as a head coach with FIBA rules reads as one NBL championship 14 years ago, it's hard to see how coaching as an assistant in the NBA could've helped him, team USA even went for coach K, not an nba related coach.

That's not to say he hasn't improved since he's been in the NBA.

I like this appointment and think Brown will be good.

As mentioned before he was a boomers assistant previously and involved in the 2000 campaign and in that era which is probably the most successfull in boomers history, largely due to A. Gaze i think but still, he knows australian basketball and assuming he is keeping in touch with the new bread of players from the states he would know all about the current crop and has coached guys like Nielsen in the past, who will probably be a important player for the Boomers over the next 2-4 years.

He has NBA experience which i think is good as he has seen how things are done outside of the NBL and also may give the boomers access to some of there training facilities, it also may have an extra incentive for players to show up for all tournaments not just the majors, as a good showing for the boomers under brown may lead you to a Spurs training camp/summer league invite and if more Aussies make the NBA due to this avenue thats also a good thing for BA, and its promotion and the boomers. Not sure how much pull brown would have, but having one of the assistant coaches in Popps ear all year about how good say a Mills, or a Worthington is aint gonna hurt there chances and would only help IMO.

Another Positive is he is NOT a current NBL coach, which takes away all the accusations of bias in selection as they play for the kings/dragons like goorj copped and also it is better for the nbl as the boomers coach wont be (or being accuesd of) using the boomers as leveredge to recruit australias top talent.

His NBL career hasnt lead to as many titles as say Goorj but his record is still above 50% wins and i think most people would have considered him to be atleast in the average to above average coaches in the league during his time, he is also very good at speaking and prmoting his team as he showed at the kings which i thikn is good for BA and the boomers profile.

I personally would like to see Georide McLeod invovled as an assistant, as i think he is one of the top coaches without a NBL club and he doesnt seem to be a control freak who couldnt work well with someone else. Then one of the better NBL coaches such as a Gleeson or Beveredge as 2nd assistant.

I can handle it, Goorjian has had his opportunities and has pretty much been a failure at international level. He always said he was going to resign after Beijing and in true Goorjian fashion never did and talked about HIM deciding if he will continue in the job or not.

The Boomers had to get away from him and his ways and it's good to see that the new coach (Brown) has been given a decent crack at it until 2012.

Jonno, you've discovered paragraphs! Love it!

just a thought, many have critisized the style of NBA in the past in regards to international games(not sure on this forum but surely many I've talked to elsewhere), it seems funny that BA turned to NBA assistant coach and people are happy with it

curious - you say that you recognise Brown's record at San Antonio, then say you don't see what he has over any local applicants.

How about his record in San Antonio?

He has been involved (and in no small way) in one of the most successful sporting teams of the last decade in any sport, and San antonio is widely recognised as the most professional team in the NBA, from the top down. I'd say BA/NBL and the Boomers could benefit from this?

I'm very happy with the decision, even if only on face value.

The announcement is the leading news story on FIBA.com

Link: http://linky.com.au/hphod

He has three kids to an Australian wife...does that mean his kids are Australian? If they are any good do we get to claim them as "our's"?

well done basketball australia, finally we will not have an nbl coach use his national coaching duties to lure teams to his nbl club, finally we will have a coach who can adapt his coaching plan.

This is great news

Not too happy with this. Brett Brown had stacked teams and got nowhere with them at Sydney. How is he going to do any better than Goorjian did for the Boomers. Yes, Goorjian has been at the helm for a while and not got huge results but the rest of the world has been producing much more talented player over that time.

If we were going to go for someone currently working overseas, surely there was a better option than Brown. I would have taken guys like Bevo or Gleeson before him who have both got the most out of teams with limited talent, rather than a guy who has struggled to get much out of stacked teams in the past. I don't think we'll see much improvement in the boomers fortunes with Brown at the helm.

It has been a excellent decision by WHO EVER to give Brown the job. There will be no bias attracting players to there team or with the selection of players on the Boomers team. Some may remember that he gave Goorjian his job in Sydney after he put that championship team together that rekindled Goorjians
career after he was sacked in Melbourne.
Brown will know who are the top and proven coaches that he needs beside him.
He will manage our players better than what Goorjian did.
Bill

It will be interesting to see how you all react if Brown gets exactly the same results as Brian. Lets just face it, internationally we are just not that good. We dont have superstars who light it up on the international stage. Bogut is our stud and he is only an average to middle player in the NBA. Then some say Neilsen is our next stud and he only averages 10ppg and 6 rpg in Spain at the moment. Hardly massive numbers.

Everyone can harp on here as much as they want about medals etc but we just dont have the cattle to medal. If we didnt directly qualify out of oceania every year (and we will continue to as NZ is in a downturn) we would struggle in the Olympic qualifying tournament. We had good wins in the olympics over Russia and Lithuania but we hit every shot we threw up and hit from everywhere. That just doenst happen every game. For us to medal we would have to shoot at 60% etc etc a bit like Croatia did to us in game 1 of the Olympic tournament but we saw it didnt end to well for them in the finish.

I think its a good appointment. I think Goorjian was by far the best option when the field was limited to NBL coaches, however I think Brown's coaching style could work better in a 2 week tournament than Goorjian's as his relies heavily on having "his sort of guys" buy into his system. I think this can alienate too many players in the top echelon, and guys we need for us to take the next step (getting Medals).

One question - whats the situation with regards to NBA coaches talking to/working out with college players? I seem to recall there being resctrictions. If Patty were to not declare for this draft, what would be the deal?

I think Brown's coaching style could work better in a 2 week tournament than Goorjian's as his relies heavily on having "his sort of guys" buy into his system. I think this can alienate too many players in the top echelon...