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Goorjian: "Warriors style" can help Guangdong regain CBA title

Xinhua, June 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Brian Goorjian, the new assistant coach of Guangdong Southern Tigers, said the former CBA champion should learn from newly crowned NBA champion Golden Warriors for getting the title back in the new season.

After finishing his 6-year contract with the Dongguan Leopards at the end of last season, the 62-year-old Goorjian turned down head coach offers from some CBA teams and surprisingly accepted the job of being the assistant coach in Guangdong, who is the city rivals to the Leopards.

"That isn't vital to me to be a head coach, it is more about how the club is run and the opportunity to win the championship," said Goorjian. " Guangdong has the championship players, they won eight titles in the past.This is the best job for me. it's like for me going to the Los Angeles Lakers."

"Moreover, I've been in Dongguan for six years, I'm familiar with this city and I like it," he added.

The Basketball Australia hall of fame coach led the Leopards to the play-offs in each of his six seasons. But now, his aim is to help Guangdong to regain their honor. He believes Golden Warriors is a good example to follow for the Southern Tigers.

"We need contributions from more players. You look at the NBA finals. The difference between the Cavaliers and the Warriors is the latter has a deeper team and everybody is on the same page. That is what we need to get right."

"If I can help players, who didn't play much last year, to be better players and they can play more minutes to contribute during regular season, then we are going to have a better and deeper team, so everybody can keep fresh in the play-offs. For this aspect, I think Beijing did that very well," Goorjian said.

Goorjian is the most winning coach in NBL history with six NBL championships, and he wants to use his experience to help Du Feng, the 33-year-old head coach of Guangdong.

"My work here is to work with Du Feng and help him grow as a coach. Du is a young coach, I coached CBA for 6 years and I coached internationally, I can bring a lot of experiences," said Goorjian, who coached the Australian national team from 2001-2008. Endi