BRIAN GOORJIAN’S no ordinary coach and has been in basketball for a long time—a career he highlighted by steering Australia to its first Olympic medal, a bronze, last year in Tokyo.
But he’s never been in a best-of-seven championship series.
“I have been in the game for a long time, but I have never been involved in a seven-game finals,” said Goorjian, a six-time National Basketball League of Australia champion coach. “Every now and then I have been involved in a best-of-five, but never a best-of-seven.”
Goorjian gets his baptism of fire right on Christmas Day this Sunday when his Hongkong Bay Area Dragons square off with the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings in the race-to-four Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
The game is set at 5 p.m. with the league expecting a sellout holiday crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“So great opportunity. I’m just really proud to be there and we have again a battle on our hands, and we know that,” said Goorjian, who has stayed at home during his coaching career with a stint in the National Basketball Association (NBA) also absent from his credentials.
Goorjian’s Dragons booted out the San Miguel Beermen, 94-92, in Game 4 of their best-of-five semifinals series last Wednesday, the same day the Gin Kings eliminated the Magnolia Hotshots also in four games, 99-84.
Goorjian and his wards are traversing uncharted waters as the favorites for having dominated the eliminations with a 10-2 win-loss record.
He’ll be sticking with former NBA player, 6-foot-10 center Andrew Nicholson, for the entire series after his spitfire Myles Powell injured his knee.
Nicholson torched the Beermen in Game 4 with 42 points, including six triples, and 21 rebounds with Kobe Lam contributing 26 points.
But Goorjian downplayed their advantage in the finals—they’re the best scoring team with a 110.35-point average.
“The Finals are far different from the regular season,” he said. “It’s more on defense in the Finals and we’re not going to score a lot around 120 or 130 basketball. We just have to prepare and brace ourselves starting Christmas Day.”
Game 2 is set Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum while Games 3 (January 4) and 4 (January 6) return to ther Pasay City arena.
If the series goes down to wire against the Gin Kings, Game 7 will be played on January 13 at the largest 55,000 seating capacity Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Game 5 (January 11) and Game 6 (January 13) will remain in MOA and if a Game 7 needed to be played, it will be at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue on January 13.