I think Jan Stirling will be Brian's female counterpart still in China though. Good for Aussie Basketball to get more involved in a country with 350 million basketballers.

Is it really our loss after some of our worst performances in recent years?

er yes Bizzy it is. Brian is the best basketball coach this country has ever seen, there is daylight for second. His results speak loud and clear.
Seriously we get rid of Gorge and he goes to China as an assistant and who do we get as our assistant? Shane Heal!!

I wonder if China will go broke now?

Australia's - Yes he is the best DOMESTIC coach that the NBL has seen. His NBL results have definitely not crossed over into the international realm. How can you claim he has performed at the International level?

That's not what I heard - I thought he was a shoe-in to sign with the Blaze and take them to an NBA championship?

But seriously though, I'm not phased about this at all. As much as I dislike Shane Heal, I can't see Brett Brown and co.'s squad performing any worse than recent Goorjian-led Australian teams. We simply don't have the roster to take it to the next level at this stage - even with Phil Jackson/*insert who you think is the best coach ever* at the helm.

I have to agree with Bizzy - his domestic results have not been seen with the Boomers program. He had the chance to blood some of the college players (Ogilvy etc) and chose to take players who sat on the bench. The results from the Olympics were average at best. Who knows what would have happened if he took some young talent? Unfortunately that is not his style. Will Brett Brown do any better - who knows? Australian basketball fans certainly would like to see better results. The selection of the assistant coaches raises the question of who actually selected them - was it Brett - or the faction in BA who think that unless you have been involved with the AIS then you do not possess the right credentials.
I think that observations about Jan Stirling would be more in the direction of Russia. At least Jan has the International results to back up her credentials.

I thought that what Goorjian did at the Olympics was pretty special. To lose to USA by 11 points before the actual olympics, then beat Russia and then thrash Lithuania was amazing. He deserves alot more credit.

Im wondering who the young players he shouldve taken were  the Boomers featured Mills, Ingles, Bogut, Newley, Barlow and Worthington, all 25 or under. They were one of the youngest teams at the tournament.

People might have questions over Saville's selection, but they forget he was close to our best player in 2007. And it is true that Redhage sat for most of the tournament, but he was only 27 and hardly an ageing player. Taking someone like Ogilvy instead of any of our four bigs would have left us very thin in the frontcourt.

Seventh (which under the non-playoff system is really equal 5-8) at the Olympics is a good result, and our performance in the second half of the tournament suggests that had Nielsen, Andersen and Bogut joined the squad earlier, or not had injury problems after they did, we probably would have finished even higher.

Signing someone who hasn't been a head coach for 7 years, has been divorced from international style basketball for seven years, who hasn't had head coaching success for 15 years and who has very little time to give to the job is a step backwards.

The fact that he has chosen playing in the lowly NBA summer leagues over touring Europe and playing some of the world's best teams is downright worrying.

Got to agree with Paul, Brett Bown is shite! He was the worst NBL coach I have ever seen. I watched a lot of Kings games with him as coach and was always amazed at his gameday tactical decisions. His rotation of players was random, his actions on the sideline and interaction with players totally crap. He was actually boo'd by fans a lot, especially when he randomly pulled a player who was hot from the game and the team went on to lose game.
I don't think he has a clue as a basketball tactician to tell you the truth, he has people skills at best, but that doesn't win big international matches.

"His results speak loud and clear."

If you're talking international results, then I just fell off my lollerskates.

Are people expecting too much of the Boomers on the international stage? Especially where one result can mean a big difference between finishing positions?

Traitor !!!! those Yanks were always known for shifting alliances ...