Brian Goorjian (center), coach of the CBA's Dongguan Leopards, is confident his team can be competitive in the top-flight league this season. However, it failed to impress in its opening game on Sunday, losing to Bayi Rockets 111-101. Provided to China Daily

Veteran coach Goorjian couldn't be happier coaching Dongguan and being in China, Tym Glaser writes

Brian Goorjian's excitement about Chinese basketball is palpable. The American/Australian (or vice versa) 58-year-old coach of the Chinese Basketball Association's (CBA) Dongguan Leopards believes he is in the right place at the right time.

The southern Chinese city is a basketball hub and the most successful coach in the Australian National Basketball League's (NBL) history and that country's national head from 2001-2008 is lapping it all up.

"The owner (of the Leopards) is building facilities, bringing in coaches and developing kids," Goorjian said last week. "You feel like your are being supported and are a part of something that is evolving. There's great energy. I loved Australia, I loved the NBL, but that last five or six year was a grind; trying to get people to the games, support from the media and sponsorship," said the basketball lifer who won a record six NBL titles Down Under and won seven of every 10 games his teams played.

"It was a never-ending grind - and I am sure it's like that (for basketball) in lots of places around the world, but this product (CBA) seems to be hot. The basketball is on the improve, it's full-time, it's competitive," he said of the league.

"We've (Dongguan) got a junior program and a women's team. It's how I wanted it to be with the (South East Melbourne) Magic; we always wanted that second team - a full-on program, but we could never do that financially. That's definitely happening here, and in a big way. It's a good change for me."

Dongguan boasts an NBA basketball training facility which will provide a feeder system for the local team and others.

"We have about 100 kids working out at the NBA school now. It's run by the NBA but it's in Dongguan and our owner built it. It's for all Chinese basketball," he said. "It opened up with a Nike camp and I went down there to have a look and the facility is second to none, it's world class. We have nothing like that in Australia, it's something really special."

Goorjian's wife and daughter remain in the California-born coach's adopted hometown of Melbourne but, despite missing family, he says he has settled well in China.

"This is my third year here and there are six Aussies here with me; so I am very comfortable. I live in a nice place and eat good food. I train all the time and socialize. I have developed a relationship with a lot of the players and have found a way to communicate," he said.

"I'm very well settled, I am not homesick, I am happy. I am very much at home and not struggling for anything. My wife and daughter come out here periodically - four or five times a year, and I get back there once a year for about a month. With the internet, Skype and all that, we get along fine."

The Leopards finished third in the CBA last season, but the veteran coach believes the team's youth push could hold it up this coming season.

"We are by far the youngest team in the competition, we haves set a three-year goal to try to win a championship and we are in the early stages of that," he said. "We had a breakout year last season we ended up in the semifinals. But when the season ended the decision was made to promote youth development. We may take a step sideways this season to ultimately move forward.

"The goal for us is that we definitely want to make the playoffs maybe with our young legs we can cause some damage in the playoffs, and that would be a great season for us, however teams that we beat by six or eight points last year have now picked up NBA players and strong third foreigners (Asian players), so we are really going to have to mesh and play well to achieve that aim."

(China Daily 11/22/2011 page23)