The six-time Australian National Basketball League (NBL) champion Brian Goorjian was selected as the first head coach of the Bay Area Dragons (formerly known as the Phoenixes), according to a recent East Asia Super League (EASL) statement.
Goorjian also led the Australian national team to their first Olympic medal (bronze) in the Tokyo Olympics, the statement noted, and has played an “integral role in the development of Asian basketball”.
The statement underlined that the team changed their name “out of respect for the established PBA [Philippine Basketball Association] club, the Phoenix Super LPG Fuel Masters”. The statement added that the PBA also accepted the addition of the Dragons into the upcoming conference as the “PBA’s first Chinese guest team”.
Goorjian, the statement pointed out, will manage a roster of top free agents from Hong Kong, the mainland, Chinese Taipei and Macau for its local players.
The statement added that like all EASL teams, the club will also have “one Asian import and two foreign import players”, while for the PBA, the squad will play with “one import (height limit to be determined)”, with respect to the PBA’s Commissioner’s Cup regulations.
Goorjian coached in the China Basketball Association (CBA) for over a decade and won almost 70 percent of his games and during the 2013-2014 CBA season, became the first foreign coach of the year, according to the statement, and has spent time with the Chinese and Japanese national teams.
The statement added that Goorjian also previously coached the Xinjiang Flying Tigers (2018) and Zhejiang Guangsha Lions (2019) in EASL competition, and led an EASL coaches’ clinic held in Macau in 2018.
The statement added that the next PBA Commissioner’s opening is tentatively scheduled to start on October 2, while EASL’s inaugural home-and-away season pan-regional format starts in October with eight teams.
The champions and runners-up from the previous Japan B. LEAGUE, Korea KBL and Philippines PBA seasons will qualify to compete in EASL. Representing Greater China are the Bay Area Dragons and the championship team from Chinese Taipei’s P. LEAGUE+, the statement said.
Further information can be found at www.easl.basketball and www.BayAreaDragons.basketball.
This image recently provided by the East Asia Super League (EASL) shows the Bay Area Dragons’s newly selected Head Coach Brian Goorjian.
