I agree with most of what he's said, though I believe Bogut deserved his starting spot.

Could have started a small back court (Heal & Maher) with a bigger frontcourt (Nielsen, Bogut, Andersen). I think they would have meshed nicely.

Had a quick read of the article and he's on the ball. The competition was tough this year with passionate Euro teams taking it at the US, but we had a chance at beating every team we played.

Start Heal, Maher, Nielsen, Andersen, Bogut as HA has said, and then bring CJ, Smith and Cattalini off the bench for them.

The word from BA that they were happy with the result from the "young" (actually oldest in the competition) side is really disappointing. Take Schenscher instead of Rogers and another young guy instead of Ronaldson and then you could talk about preparing for 2008 a bit more realistically.

Even you harshest Boti critics out there could not disagree with him on this article.

He certainly did get it right (and in far fewer words than I took recently!)

Unfortunately his credibility is consistently challenged by so many, particularly (and strangely??) people on this forum which may lead to people dismissing his views as another load of sour grapes.

Boti always calls it as he sees it and is a good writer and analyst of the game. Just because you don't agree with some of his thoughts doesn't mean you should flame him. He's the best weapon we've got to voice our concerns - let's use it.

I would of had Saville and Cat spitting the time, everything else I agree with

Like all journalists who were former non players he is an expert after the event. Strange how he shows a racial bias to "expat" Americans as if they should not be considered for the coach of a national team even if they have contributed over twenty years to our sport and done far more then someone who writes in a small time paper. If we had that view we should not have overseas born players or coaches in any Australian team! Where would Bogut play, Paul Rogers play. Maybe Cattalini should go and play for Italy. The Chinese coaches attached to the diving team should be expelled. In our society and our sport where the Americans and Europeans have contributed so much what a stupid comment. After all Nagy is from an immigrant family himself. Maybe we should only have Australian born journalists!

Jay,

Sorry, I missed the part where Boti was a racist?

Wak,
Its another case of people taking life too seriously.

Get over it Jay.

Just to put my two bobs worth in on this.............I feel a well written piece by Boti no punches pulled. Whether a person has played the game or not doesn't mean they don't have an opinion..I have seen Boti with his coaching hat on in the junior district comp and he has a grip on how the game is played. I found his point to be that the right person/people for the job were not chosen correctly, seems to me to be the popular verdict of most people on how the Boomers went in Athens

Great article Boti! get that word out, and get that tool Goorjian out of here! This is a great start to a campaign that i think all states will agree with!

YOU ARE COOKED BRIAN, FOUR YEARS IS A LONG TIME TO TRY TO MAKE EXCUSES FOR THE BOOMERS VERY PUBLIC DEMISE!

All Boti's comments re the national team are spot on, but what is the dude's beef with Mark Nash? Get off his back, man! Would you prefer he jacked it every offence, ala Golden Boy Heal?

The issue with Nash is the fact he was almost the Anti - Heal for the last 2 seasons, almost afraid to put up any shots.

Exactly.

Nash is actually a pretty good shooter when given time to set up. It's just that sometimes it looks like he has the 'yips' and doubts himself.

But Boti sure isn't afraid to take a shot, is he...a cheap one that is...a good journo can make his/her point without resorting to ridicule.

I'm pretty sure Boti was a good player back in the day. Now I stand to be corrected but I think 1 or 2 of his brothers played in Olympics and he himself, while not an Olympian, was pretty tidy. Can anyone confirm or deny my suspicions?

Jay, you are off the mark in so many area I can't be bothered going in to it. Right at the top you refered to ex-pat Americans, but the article clearly said the dude was Canadian. It got worse from there but I'm a busy man.

He didn't make the point that we beat Italy (the silver medallists) about two weeks before the games as well, when Heal was RESTED and we had a full rotation. Blergh.

I disagree with Boti.
He is such a hater of anybody who isn't South Australian its disgusting.

In his article he wrote that any NBL coach could have beaten Angola and New Zealand. I guess he's forgotten about Australia's biggest coaching abberation in its history - Phil Smyth.
There's one coach who couldn't beat New Zealand - even over a 3 game series. At least Goorijan qualified for the Olympics!!!!

(Mod: Remark removed.)

Smyth is nowhere near the coach that Goorjian is. Don't rag on me for saying so because it's a fact - Smyth didn't even qualify for the last World Championships.

I'm not even going to dignifty that dribble with a response....Anyone with half a brain would realise why we lost to NZ in that series.

I don't think Smyth is the perfect Olympic coach, but you're comparing two entirely different teams. A lot of players were not available for Smyth's Boomers team.

His point was that Angola and NZ were hardly dominant teams and if you take away those easy wins then we had nothing but Ls.

Hey Billo read the article he leaves in no doubt that he is referring to the fact that Goorjian is American born and that's his hang up. I don't support everything he does and I don't like a Canadian being involved in the Australian team without contributing to Australian basketball either. Nagy makes light of beating Angola and he wants Hurley back. Didn't Angola beat Australia at the Korean Olympics? That's when Hurley was coach and they had Smyth as point, Longley, Bradtke, young Gaze etc. So are we going to join those two up again and give Angola another shot at us? One of Nagys brothers played for Australia. I didn't see him play but I heard once Phil described him as "foot steps'. I wonder why. I don't think he even played state league!

You are obviously a Yank Jay.

Kansas City Mack cooresponds "Smyth didn't even qualify for the last World Championships."

Yes, that is correct Kansas.

New Zealand went on to finish 4th in those same championships, a fact everyone wants to ignore, showing how far along the NZ program had become.

People also want to forget that 75% of the Sydney Olympics Boomers team was not available for Smyth to select.

So, qualifying in a World Championship is your benchmark?? When did Goorjian last qualify for the World Championships??

Now your saying that Goorjian is a better coach than Smyth, and thats fact.

Based on what?? International level? Domestic level? Internationally, you cant compere as they had 2 very different teams, different situations, and different competitions.

Domestically, lets look at some stats. Smyth has been to the Grand Finals 3 times, and won all 3 (100% success). Goorjoian has made the Grand Finals 9 times, and won 4 (44.4%).

Smyth has made finals in all 7 seasons he has coached (once again, 100%), and Goorjian has made finals 15 from 17 seasons (an impressive, but still lower than Smyth 88.2%).

Maybe lets look at win/loss ratios. The data I have is up till the start of the 03/04 season, so forgive me there. Smyth had a ratio of 129-74 (63.54) and Goorjian is at 350-159 (68.8%).

So whilst on an overall win-loss ratio, Goorjian has a 5% better winning rate (in a very much longer career), Smyth beats him when it matters...at finals time.

Look forward to your retraction on the statement that Goorjian is better than Smyth, unless you can provide other facts to back up your statement.

You go yoges....

Bravo yogee

Yogee,

A good analogy is AFL. Who is the better coach, Mark Williams or Leigh Matthews. Mark wins more games when it doesn't matter and Leigh wins them when they matter. Give me Leigh and Phil anytime.

Malcolm Blight for the crows in 97 & 98 too.

No retraction coming from me Yogee!

Goorijan has coached for 17 seasons and made the finals 15 times. Thats a lot more impressive Yogee than Phil's 7 out of 7 finals appearances.
Why?
When Goorj started coaching there were a helluva lot more teams to compete against.
Also, this stooopid finals system where an average team gets in i.e Sixers 03. makes Smyth's record look very rosy.

You mentioned Goorijan's win/loss is 5% better than Smyth's. Now that is impressive. Goorijan having coached 10 seasons longer - when there were more teams - and he still beats Smyth!

The "getting to the finals" stats don't mean shit, its the "winning the premiership" stats that say it all.

and Goorj has more premiership wins.

Does more teams = more duds and therefore actually pad the stats??

And even more premiership losses!

Give Phil 12 more years and I think he'll have more than one more to add to the tally

Wow...so Goorjian has 4 championships.....Smyth has 3....Smyth has had a career 10 seasons shorter than Goorjian....so therefore, if you equated it out to equal career lengths, Smyth would have a LOAD more championships.

You want to compare competitions as well. Lets compare teams. Goorjian has arguable had some of the best teams ever assembled, and failed to make the grade (Magic 97, Titans 98). Maybe we should mention the 4 years running that Goorjian coached teams LOST the Grand Final. Tell me whay Smyth coached team has ever lost a Grand Final.

Unfortunately, I dont have head to head stats available (NBL have aged them off the media site), I am very confident that would show Phil is also on a winning edge against Goorjian.

So, what facts are you using to make your "factual" statement that Goorjian is a better coach? All the stats would "factually" show your "fact" to indeed be "fallacy".

As to the fact that there were more teams. Only 2 teams ever played in the Grand Final, whoch means Goorj has still had less success.

No Boti.

No Boti.

No Boti....Loves me.

(Mod: hilarious!)

Potato - potata

tomato - tamata!

Fact - fallacy

Here's a fact for you Yogee,
Basketball Australia sacked Phil Smyth.
BA haven't sacked Brian Goorjian!

Win/loss, finals or not, seasons coached... nice little side argument.

Lets not be sidetracked from the real issues - the worst ever finish by the Boomers at the Olympics, and the most biased, detrimental dispay of coaching from Goorgian (sadly, on an international stage).

This is not about whether Smyth is better than BG, this is about the shocking display of favouritsm and coaching that BG portrayed at the Olympics in front of all Australia, not to mention the world.
He played the tournament like it was an NBL season, putting his pupils ahead of the rest to the detriment of those arguably more worthy and Australia.

Everybody can see this.

Kansas and Jay, you post ridiculous comments. It may be your opinions but for opinions to be taken seriously they need the facts to support them.
The facts are what everybody has witnessed the last two weeks, which totally negate your comments.

You guys support Goorjian by refuting Boti's article... give us reason. What would you two have done in BGs situation? Would you have let 'Golden Boy' Heal continue with his licensed stupidity from down-town? Would you have played players ahead of Maher/Cat/Rogers/Rillie or stuck with BGs formula which wasn't working? As Boti stated, would you have taken Rogers to have him twiddling his thumbs, at the expense of giving experience to youth who could have twiddled their thumbs but 'soaked up the atmosphere'?

Kansas, you write that Smyth lost to NZ. We all know this and why, so how about you give us your perspective on why this happened. This isn't even relevant in this discussion, EXCEPT for the consequences of that series.

Are the same consequences going to be experienced now?

This is the point of all this, and in my opinion YES those consequences should be repeated.

Spot on Boti, you've reflected the emotion and thoughts of the majority of people here.

By the way, BG has also lost to NZ, albeit with a more talent laden team. So who's loss is more reflective of the quality of their coaching with the team they had on court?

"No Boti....Loves me."

Thats the most accurate statement you have posted Kansas

KCM,

Very astute observation re: sackings by BA. I don't know how that supports your argument that BG is better. It simply reinforces BA's incompetence to me!

Actually, Smyth was NOT sacked by BA. Smyth resigned.

THAT is fact.

Smyth and Goorjian have completely different personalities. If each guy was put before the board of Basketball Australia and asked to talk about their success or lack of, my guess is that you would see one sharp shootin sales man versus one lay-back level headed - person. Me thinks Goorjian is more than capable of defending his cause and hence why he remains and will stay coach of Australia Men's Basketball Team.