Brian Goorjian Leading An Olympic Team

The Australian Boomers basketball team were an incredible story

of inspiration and success in winning the bronze medal

at the Tokyo Olympics, achieving a first in Australian basketball history.

As a coach, how do you adapt your leadership style

in a way that supports a group of players

who have already established an environment destined for success?

G'day, it's Luke Darcy.

The idea of self-improvement and leadership both on and off the field

has been a lifelong passion of mine.

With one of my oldest friends, we created a leader collective

and have had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders

in education, sport, industry and the arts

that have helped shift to what we see as the 21st century style of leadership

where everyone has a voice.

In this podcast, we hear stories from these iconic leaders.

I was joined by Australian Olympic basketball coach Brian Gorgian

to discuss how he positively impacts his environment

by listening to his players and coaches,

how sharing and community are important

to his team and his team-mates.

And we get an insight into Paddy Mill's great leadership style as captain.

Well, this is a great pleasure to speak to a man

who has had incredible success on every measure

as a leader and as a coach.

He's coached over 500 wins at a success rate of 70%,

which is just an extraordinary coaching record.

He's a six-time NBL champion coach here in Australia in the basketball,

a six-time NBL coach of the year.

In over a 20-year period, Brian Gorgian finished no worse

than a semi-final level every season in a row.

For 20 seasons, including 12 grand finals.

Remarkable achievement.

He's fresh from coaching the Australian Boomers

to their first ever Olympic medal.

It was an extraordinary moment.

Brian Gorgian joins me.

He's in Howard Springs.

He's quarantining his way back through.

Gord, you gave Australians so much joy, mate.

Congratulations.

It was a remarkable moment.

No, thank you.

It's, yeah, we're in Darwin.

I got about three or four of the guys down next to me

sitting in bungalows.

We're side by side.

And it's one of those things where you get up in the morning each day

and stick your fist up with your coffee in the morning.

We get fresh air here, which is a real positive.

We get to go outside during our quarantine.

And I think one of the things that just the thoughtful to this all

is to make sure you enjoy it.

And we all know it was something special, something we're proud of.

And it was, we knew Australia was following us.

And we knew Australia was following us.

And, yeah, just really excited about everything about it.

Gord, you've got to ask you in a moment about the leadership of Joe Ingalls

and Paddy Mills in particular.

It was just extraordinary leadership.

But I want to go back a little bit to you coming across.

You were born in Glendale, California.

You went to Crescenta Valley High School and Pepperdine University in Malibu.

You come out and you said you play under Lindsay Gaze

and you're the captain of the first Melbourne Tigers NBL team back in 1984.

Your love for Australian sport as a young American growing up

and your connection to Australia, what makes Australian sport special

for an island of 25 million people that tends to punch above its weight?

You've observed Australian sport a lot.

What sets it apart?

I mean, you know, culture is a difficult word.

It really is.

And it encompasses a lot.

Teamship encompasses a lot.

But I came from an environment where there was much more a mindset

in American sport.

About starting right from the elite.

You know, when you're a kid on the playground, when you're in fifth grade,

100 kids try out for the team and 10 make it.

The other 90, I was asked in Australia, well, what happens to a guy in fifth grade

that gets cut?

What do the other 90 do?

They go do another sport.

If you miss that out, you know, join the band.

You're out.

Where I came back to Australia, came to Australia, you know, at night,

the ANZ bankers are playing.

We're off the court.

We're the pro team and we're off court night at Albert Park because the bankers are playing.

I mean, everyone, you know, it encompassed everybody.

Many more people were involved.

It was much more cutthroat in the States is what I'm trying to say.

And then you go to when you get to those higher levels,

gets basically to say, if you get along, great.

If you don't, give me your 15 points and 10 rebounds and just bring your bag and do your job.

And when I came to Australia.

Right from the beginning, meeting Lindsay Gaze with, you know, I said, I come in,

he's a national coach.

I expect this guy with a tremendous ego that you, you get to talk to every now and then,

and just, you know, demands respect.

Lindsay just under, you know, under 18s, under 20s mop the court before he took us at three

o'clock would play if we needed another player in it.

Absolutely.

No ego.

Only cared about the team and taught team basketball and the guys that, you know, I arrived

there, the guy I play ahead of invites me to his house for Christmas and I've got a present under

the tree.

I was just, it just, as you go forward now, 400 Australian kids playing in America right now,

and some are attracted to, you know, certain coaches have a lot of Australians on their team.

And I remember one incident where a guy said, you know,

I want it, your team's doing really well.

I want to get into this concept of your play.

And the guy says, before we do that, it's not really about the concept of play.

It's about the Aussies.

They care about each other.

They practice hard.

They're about team.

A good example of that.

And I'm proud of was, was the boomers accomplishment and how the boomers had been over the last

period of time.

And now everyone through the names of those NBA players.

And through the profile of basketball right now, they're, they're becoming visual.

The Olympics was such a gift for so many people around the world and here in Australia,

lots of people facing lockdown and the stories were incredible and emotive.

But for me, I genuinely feel like you and the boomers captured that mood almost in a way that

very few sporting teams have had.

And I'm assuming you've heard this, but I'd needed to play it again because the great Andrew

Gay is a five-time Olympian himself.

And the Gay's family are basketball royals.

Boy, it's in Australia and they're, they're closely linked to you too, Gorge.

But I thought Andrew's reaction, the moment you won the bronze medal was, was something

to savor.

And I just want to play it to you and I want to get your thoughts listening to Andrew Gay's

and how much, what you achieved meant to him.

But when you're in there and you're in the trenches and you see that resilience being

rewarded in this way, and it hasn't been for a long, long period of time.

So for me, selfishly, I feel a part of it.

You should feel part of it.

You should.

You should feel a significant part of this, mate.

And to see Paddy and the boys.

Come on.

We're so, Australia is so thrilled for you.

I mean, it's, um, it's going to be quite emotional tonight, Lise.

This country loves you, mate.

You were there in 88.

You were there in 96.

You were there in 2000 when you got to this stage.

They're beautiful journeys.

You don't have to win a medal to have a beautiful journey.

And it's about what we want to stand for.

In representing Australia and representing this sport.

And I think of those that have been along for the journey that have their DNA on this.

You know, there's so many that you look back on that toiled when you don't get a cent for

playing the game.

When you're building stadiums, you're building a sport, you're trying to generate it.

And for me, I am so grateful that, and it is tough.

But I'm...

Incredibly grateful that before the game, I called on my dad.

Yeah, I want to know how that ends.

And just to hear him talk about what this means to the sport and the humility and nothing

to do with him, just about how this is going to be good for Australia and Australian basketball

and another tangible bit of evidence to say that we have arrived as a sport, both our

men and women.

And he started when there was...

200 registered players and he toured away as a coach and an administrator to build facilities,

propagate the game, take it to the people.

And the whole way, it was about the Olympics.

The values of the Olympics, the spirit of competition were instilled in me at a very

early age.

And it's all about getting on that podium and showing the friendship and love and making

sure that you do the right thing by the game.

And the nation and the pride that comes in pulling on a green and gold jersey.

What you hear there, I know I've got a voice like this, but my history goes back that far.

You know, when I arrived in Australia, Lindsay brought me over and he was my coach and he

was the national coach at that time.

And Andrew Gaze, my last year of playing, you know, we played together and staunch rivalries

all the way through my coaching career.

A deep respect.

And even going prior to that, Lindsay's mentor, Ken Watson, you know, Ken Cole.

I mean, all these people, all these people that have such pride.

And you've got to remember in our sport, we've been in a constant battle to survive.

You know, you've got, you know, I always say when I was in China or when I'm talking to

the people from Japan today, you know, what it means to our country as a sport.

Andrew talks about it.

And his father, the battle we were in to compete, to have a competition, to have a

pro league.

You know, you've got Australian rules football, you've got rugby, you've got cricket, you've

got all these sports.

And now in this event, all eyes are on basketball.

And there started to be some momentum with the growth of the NBL.

With now we've got NBA players and a lot of work's been done.

Over.

For a lot of years.

And this was, it's not something that this team just did.

It was a process of a lot of bodies and a lot of hard work by a lot of people to build

to this crescendo.

And it makes my skin, you know, I just, yeah, my hair, my three hairs that I got on my head

stand on end when I hear his voice, because I felt that going into the game.

We knew the nation was watching.

We knew we had a responsibility.

You know, you can't always win, but it was our time and, but you can put on the floor

that.

Culture.

I thought, you know, right from the start of the game that was there and it kind of

relaxed me during the game.

The other aspect of this Luke is that Patty mills, Joe down the road in their career,

but they were definitely on board with all this and driving it.

It wasn't just about the presence.

There was a lot of work by Patty and Joe and that leadership group to acknowledge the

gazes, the bogus pro going back to 1964 team.

We had on our wall, all the players that have ever played from the boomers on plaques, making

sure that the young guys Tybalt and Josh green and Josh Giddey were aware of the history.

So they did a great job of, of that and making the current boomers and a lot of young guys

that haven't.

They wouldn't know Lindsay that in that form and making sure they were educated and knew

it was at stake.

They're becoming visual.

You had an extraordinary captain who was part of that legacy and sums up everything you

said Gorge in Patty mills and all of those qualities you speak about for those that didn't

know Patty mills before the Olympics, you got to see this extraordinary leader, a young

boy of indigenous and Torres Strait Islander background.

You know, I say young boy, cause I remember him as a 15 year old when he was maybe the

greatest.

NFL player of his age at 15 and we were waiting to see him come through and play the game

that I love.

And he went on a clearly this path and said, extraordinary, describe to me the captain

that you had and the leadership qualities of Patty mills.

Boy.

I mean, it, one, it's, it's a blessed that, that, I mean, a unique scenario for me to,

to be a part of the boomers when he just joined in Beijing at 18, nine year old, virtually

young kid.

And to see that.

Man.

That kid at that age, and now come back 12 years later and see what's transpired.

Sometimes you have to have a role and steer the thing and, and, and start the culture.

And, and I mean, what I'm trying to say is when I walked in the gym in Irvine, the first

two days, I didn't say anything, the flags on the wall, the music being played gold vibes

only all of this stuff.

I said, it was a drop.

It was a drop in center.

I go, I got to take this in for two days before I run my mouth and his leadership and Joe's

leadership were so strong.

I honestly changed my whole coaching persona for these games.

And I know that sounds strange, but it's like, I'm going to take a lesser voice in this.

I'm going to run it more like the Australian rules football, more like a soccer team, more

managerial, just sit on the top of this, have lesser of a voice and let these guys.

Be them.

Let these guys be the voice of the team.

It was that strong and his respect, as I said, and his, his push, not only for the past that

we've just talked about, but the present, the present was gold vibes only and gold vibes

only was a standard of today of excellence for everything that you did.

It wasn't the metal.

It was about when you walk through the door, the music being played, that it's an Australian

music.

The food that's being, that's being fed Milo there's a Lamington's there's there's, you know,

Aussie pies, there's pasties, the socks that you wore the gear.

There's no mistake in the color of the top it's gold.

It's forest green.

It's the proper green.

There's no, you know, we, we were, everything was gold standard.

The practice session had to be gold standard, the effort gold standard.

And that was driven by him.

And then.

The last part of this is the future.

So again, I've been a part of the boomers where in, in Sydney, when I took over all

of them stayed a longer period of time and they all retired at the same time, you start

from zero.

It takes six years to start this.

So he touched Josh Giddey.

He touched Josh green.

He touched Matisse title.

He touched wreath do up.

And in that these guys now understand the culture.

Understand leadership, understand the past, understand the now, and that is so valuable.

And again, I could see this.

I could sense this.

And it gave me an opportunity to take a step back and let them do their thing.

What a great summation gorge of, of what you saw firsthand.

And, and just, you know, Joe's leadership and Patty's language.

He referenced his uncle, Danny, the second ever indigenous Australian to represent Australia.

The Olympics, he touched on the past great players, as you said, and I didn't understand

that he's also got an eye to the future of Australia.

This is a prophetic leader, isn't he?

And in lots of ways to, to have that vision and understanding and, and what it means is

quite incredible for you to walk into that environment.

Was that hard for you at your stage, you clearly got a way of doing things.

Did you walk in and then really have to say, I'm changing my style here.

This has got an energy about it.

I'm backing away from what I'd normally do.

Was that, was that a challenge for you?

Uh, no, no, it was exciting for me.

I don't look at it as challenging, but I was aware of it.

I was, I could see and how the team had played prior that there was a strong presence of

team ship.

And I had discussions with that leadership group in leading into taking the job and going

into this drop-in center, but the impact of it in the power of it, when you first walked

in the gym, took me back.

And honestly, um, you know, I'm not exaggerating and I had guys come up to me and said, man,

you know, on the middle, at the end of the second day, after the practice was over, one

of the managers came up to me and said, God, we were all waiting for you to say something.

You haven't said anything for, you know, it was very noticeable to them, but I was trying

to make a statement of, you know, um, I didn't want to step on it and you gotta make, when

it's going like that, you gotta make sure.

You're competent.

You're in the, you know, you're going where you need to go and you're not just, there

was no room for air and, uh, it was moving, uh, honestly, it was, uh, they were spot on

it, spot on it leading to the next phase of it, which was the culture night.

And then leading to the, there was steps and they thought about it, knew what they were

doing.

And, uh, that also enabled me to spend time.

At night when the drop in center talk, communicate, we even talked about, you know, they had an

input in style of play.

I think a huge thing of this leader was communication both ways.

And, uh, and that was strong.

Such a great shift.

I want to talk to you about something, you know, we're really passionate about is that

shift in leadership that you've identified really clearly.

I just want to touch a bit more on, on Patty Mills for those that maybe don't know, you

know, his story with his over a decade at San Antonio.

Gorge and going into that team, he's an NBA championship winning player now, but he really

became a legend in America because the Americans picked up on his incredible capacity to support

his teammates.

He's flagged.

So he's towel waving on the sidelines became a thing in America.

You want to have someone like Patty Mills on your team and his performance in the Olympics.

He now goes onto the Brooklyn nets and with, with three of the greatest players in the

game.

At the moment you play with in Harden and Kevin, uh, Duran and Kyrie Irving.

He's a great guy.

He's a great guy.

You say, can you describe how he's perceived in America?

Because they get the essence of Patty Mills over there.

Yeah.

They play him playing with, you know, one of the greatest team coaches of all time.

And, uh, Tim Duncan, one of the greatest captains have all time, not, you know, he's smart enough.

I'm sure he learned, and I'm sure those guys are part of Patty's development and it was

in Patty, but they brought it out.

They brought it to the surface and let Patty be Patty.

And nope, he figured out the role that he needed to play to best suit the team and help them win a championship and also was a huge part of the team off the floor, like you said, with support, whether it's on the bench or whether it's in the locker room.

He was a really important piece to that. And you could see after the medals were handed out that, you know, him and Kevin Durant, you could see the smile on Kevin Durant's and the kind of the hug and how he gets it and is so excited to have Patty on board.

Because with those three big, big guns, you couldn't get a better guy to be that piece that will find whatever is required and whatever is needed for them to go on.

And win it all, not only skill wise, but as you're saying, just that piece that's going to help glue the team together and take it the direction it needs to go.

I keep going back, you know, I was reading today, looking at Patty, that his great uncle is Eddie Marbo, who achieved the amazing land right, you know, high court recognition of land for Indigenous Australians for the first time.

He was inspired, Patty, by Kathy Mills at her win at the Olympics in Sydney 2000 when she won the 400 and he made contact with Kathy.

She attended his wedding and he's just, as you said now, carried a spirit of Australian leadership and culture that you described so beautifully, Gorge.

I feel like he set that up for a generation of Australians who maybe didn't get it, who maybe know it and touch so many people with what you guys have just done a couple of weeks ago.

I know, I know he's had a huge effect on those young guys that have come in, a guy like Matisse Tybel, a guy like Josh Green that don't know they're Australian, but they've spent less time in Australia than me.

I mean, they have, they were kids, they've been in the American system and, you know, in some ways at the start, they were not getting the piece that they wanted.

You know, Matisse was coming off the bench, Josh Green didn't play much, and I loved watching their expression.

I love watching them grow and change and start, wow, this can really happen.

It was something really special to see the effect it had on guys like that.

And then the other aspect of this, you can't take away.

With what's going on in our sport and going on in the country, I thought, as I was coming to this team, I'm going to be honoring, it's the first time ever to have an Indigenous captain of the Boomers.

And I was really excited.

Obviously, there was no question, but really excited to present that.

And then before that even took place, it's like, hey, this guy's going to not only captain the Boomers, he's going to captain.

And then the Australian Olympic team and what a tremendous job he did with that and what's going on in our country and around the world right now.

And in Australian sport, Eddie Betts, you know, the things that are taking place and to have a guy like this stand up and do it right.

He cares about everybody.

He supports everybody.

In the village, he just blew my, I mean, he'd walk around and, you know, the other events, be inquisitive, watching, taking notes.

Go up and congratulate.

You know, he didn't walk around there like he's a rock star.

He was one of the team.

Again, I walked in that gym in Irvine and looked up at the wall and go, God, the flags had such a strong, you know, a little simple thing like that.

But it's like, wow, floor to ceiling, man, bang, you know, the jukebox in the middle, Jimmy Barnes, you know, Kylie Minogue, you know, Tina Arena, Johnny.

You know, like in the songs I keep.

The songs were, you know, you are, we are, we are Australia.

I don't know.

But when you're in that band and you've come out of a game and you've won and that's blaring in the background, tears come to your eyes.

We can't be beaten.

It's something that will stay with me in coaching.

How valuable and how strong music was and how it was orchestrated by those guys and was had a really strong impact.

They touched it.

You mentioned in part of that, Gorgie, you changed your style to be more managerial, like a soccer coach or an AFL coach for a time.

And I know we've connected over this great collaboration you're doing with what we've called the Australian Coach Symposium, facilitated by my great friend, Matt Waterwitz.

And you, Luke Beveridge, who's a legendary AFL coach, the Bordeaux Premiership coach in 2016.

Eddie Jones from English Rugby has got an incredible history in English Rugby.

Ange Postacoglu is doing extraordinary.

Extraordinary things, fresh from winning a Premiership in Japan and now coaching the famous Celtic and Scotland First Australian to do that.

Neil Craig is a legend of Australian coach and high performance.

Tell us about your collective and your collaboration with those guys and what impact that's had on you and your coaching.

One of the big things was how much more listening and communication, more two-way.

I've been kind of a personality that I have.

And I'll...

I'll give you everything I've got if you want it.

I'll give everything you got.

But to give more power to the assistant coaches and what you're looking for in those guys.

And it's helped me develop them by giving them more and what the requirements are of them.

And I think with this team, I think they would have been probably taken back if they got in and talked to you and said, well, what did you get from Brian Gorgian?

Yeah.

Well, he said, shit, he gave me more.

He let me, hey, here's your deal.

You're competent.

Take it.

And then that's not the Brian Gorgian that they were expecting to get.

Again, that word, I guess, empowerment, not only as players, you give more, you get more.

You have a short window, five-day drop-in center, five days of practice, three practice games, and you're in it.

Now, how...

How I operated would not have worked.

Don't have enough time and not enough of you.

So the timing of those pearls from those guys was perfect.

And I knew as soon as I saw it, I've got something for this.

It's amazing how the staff was with the power that they had.

And Gorg, we're identifying that shift to exactly as you did and empowering your assistant coaches more.

I certainly played...

I footy in an era where even if you had 300 games experience or you'd been around 15,

your opinion wasn't valued because you weren't the senior coach and you didn't take on board.

And you look back and you think there was these resources that were probably there to support that environment a little bit more that were wasted.

And then you didn't feel as though you had a voice in your environment.

Sometimes that could be...

It was the era that we were in, but I feel like you and this next generation of coaches who, a lot of them are my friends now,

get the value in understanding these resources.

Your assistant coaches can give so much more if you empower them.

I just want to pivot slightly.

That is a bit of a word of the times, which I'm a bit over, but I've got some questions to ask you.

But I want to just change to a bit of family because I read that...

And I'm passionate about leadership in the family.

And clearly, you've got leadership in your coaching and day-to-day.

But your dad was your initial coach in high school, I believe.

Your father read and just what sort of leadership he left with you.

And what that's done for you in your life.

He is a Hall of Fame high school coach.

He had whatever years of coaching.

At the time I came through, he'd never had an NBA player.

So one of the first conversations was, you know, you come into this program.

It's, you know, we're going to make you a better basketball player, but you're going to become a better person.

And you're going to become something special in society.

And if you don't, you know, we haven't produced an...

You know, we haven't produced an NBA player, but you'd have a board up there.

This guy's a doctor.

This guy's a lawyer.

This guy's a mayor.

You know, you look at your classmates and you sit next to them in the classroom.

You're a part of this basketball team.

You're going to kick ass when it comes time to compete outside of these doors.

And it gave you the values, the principles, the understanding of how to be great and how to be...

Go about winning, whether it's on the court or whether it's off the court.

That's what I got from him.

And then the coaching side of it, you don't...

So many...

You know, you're sitting in the back seat from the time I'm seven or eight years old,

sitting behind the bench at the high school games and my dad's coaching.

And I'm just in a knot because I want my dad to win so bad.

And then sitting in the back seat of the car, coming back and him reliving the game with the assistant coach

and talking about all the things we're talking about now, roles.

That was...

That was going in my ears at nine, 10, 11 years old.

And then graduating from him and having my first pro deal.

And I'm with Lindsay Gaze for 10 seasons.

So, I mean, I've been blessed.

And, you know, it doesn't fall far from the tree.

What you're around, what influences you has a huge effect on what the outcome is.

And there are two men that I owe a tremendous amount to.

I'm interested.

Some of your success and consistent success in people's daily habits.

Is there stuff you do, Gorge, every day that sets you up to be successful?

I try to be active.

Real important, I think, is not letting yourself go physically.

And it gets more and more a battle as you get older.

I think as a leader, when I'm involved in basketball, I've got to bring an energy to this.

And I got to bring an excitement to this.

Not just when...

You're turning on the TV and the whole nation's watching.

But at, you know, 7 o'clock in the morning when you're in the weight room.

Or 8 o'clock in the morning when you're rebounding balls and throwing it to a guy.

You can't be an old man sitting on the sideline eating a donut with a cup of coffee.

That is something that you've got to work at.

And in turn, I think a real important aspect of anything you do is that you've got to have a hunger to get better.

And, you know...

I did.

I walked in.

I listened to those assistant coaches.

I've been away.

I listened to Patty.

I listened to Joe.

I want to learn.

I want to get better.

I have a respect.

And I think a horrible trait for an experience...

You see it a lot in guys my age is arrogance.

I know it all.

I know what I'm doing.

I've been around the block.

Listen to me, Junior.

And again, for me, these guys that I've been speaking to on a...

on a fortnightly basis, just my mind opens up.

And they're all about learning.

They're all about getting better.

Other codes, the young...

I've learned, you know, again, so much from Joe and Patty.

Patty's been around the best coach in the world for how many years?

You don't think a guy with his intelligence and his nous and his energy hasn't learned?

I picked his brain.

And again, I think I've been around.

I give myself...

When you say, okay...

What do you get a pat for?

I've had that in me.

I haven't had an arrogance about me, that I'm good.

I know what I'm doing.

I've won these...

You know, irrelevant.

You know, it's about pursuit.

You're not defending anything.

You're moving forward.

And again, the Aussie thing, the boomer, that's a point Patty made loud and clear.

A kangaroo never takes a step backwards.

You're moving forward.

You're learning.

Everybody has something to give you.

Yeah, I love that constant never-ending self-improvement.

And a great...

Reflection of modern leadership, Gorge.

You embody that in everything you say and everything you do.

We're trying to capture in these podcasts, Gorge, from a range of different people,

what we think make up great leadership.

And I want to ask you firstly about self-leadership.

What does that mean to you?

Well, self-leadership, you know, or a part of it, I don't know if I've got you right,

but it lead by example.

You got to have an understanding of it.

You can't be over here and be preaching.

I guess I use it that the communication's both ways, that it's not, you're not asking

something of somebody and you're not living it.

How do you actively go about positively impacting others in your environment?

I guess I try to keep things simple.

When I went to China and I walked in the door and I'm with all of a sudden out of nowhere,

I'm with the Chinese national team.

Yi Jilin, NBA player.

Yao Ming.

NBA player.

These guys are 7'5", 7', you know, they've got the gear on.

I walked in, I'm the only Western person in there.

And you walk in there and there it is, what you're asking.

How do you get respect?

And two things came out loud.

They don't speak my language.

We can't talk.

So how do you make this happen?

And what stuck out to me within work ethic, you don't say nothing.

You got to keep your mouth.

You got to keep your mouth shut.

And man, you're going to, you know, I was on every basketball.

I was rebounded.

I was wiping the floor.

I was high five.

I was, you know, active with the passes.

Afterwards, I was the last guy to leave when they walked in the gym.

I was in there with my notebook.

Second aspect.

And again, the men and I speak to it at night on this stuff.

You look and you go, they're competent.

You better be competent in your craft when they ask the question or look at you.

You know, no, this.

What goes here, this hand goes here, you know, and slap them on the ass and give them the ball.

Do this ten times, you know, do this ten times and you want them walking out of the gym going, you know, in their own language.

Hey, that guy knows what he's talking about.

I can get better from that guy.

You realize everybody wants to get better.

And two, he works his ass off because everyone has a respect for that.

And I know maybe I'm older and they're simple things.

But man, when I was in China.

It got bared to the bone.

And when you've got six days or seven days to prepare for a, you know, a medal, you get bared to the bone.

It gets down to things like this.

How about creating and sharing your vision?

How do you think about that?

You know, all the things that we talk about, communication, talk a lot, talk a lot.

When you say in quiet times, you know, the practice finishes, you know, I try to pick two guys a day.

You know, that I, you know, touch everybody as they come in the door.

Make sure you bet two guys a day, shoot the ship with and kind of get, you know, they get a feeling.

And then and then you're, you know, simply your actions, you know, your your actions on a day to day.

We're in entertainment, man.

We're we're there's a role to play as head coach.

Like I said, come in sharp, come in with energy.

The high road all the time.

Never get dragged down.

Just the visual.

Curiosity and leadership.

What are your thoughts on on curiosity?

And then how does that work for you in terms of your own learning and improvement?

Really important.

And I guess I I put that in the back bag of wanting to get better.

The great ones that I've been fortunate, whether it's been business, you know, I mean, it's been an interesting journey.

A guy that doesn't have a lot.

But I've been around people.

I've been around people with a lot.

You know, the the the owners of of the kings, the owners of the dragons, you know, you're around Ruffy Jaminda, the the, you know, the Pratt family.

And you learn and, you know, constantly being in an environment where you're getting better and you're learning.

And when that stops or when you lose the appetite for that, that passion and energy, when that goes.

And you can see it hasn't.

And when you're when you're you know, you have that thirst for getting better and wanting to learn.

The funny thing is, it can be somebody.

One of the massage girls can be massaged in a guy and walk by you and say something and go, shit.

Yeah, because he's relaxed and he's talking.

He's comfortable and they talk about something.

And wow, you get hit with a pearl and go, man, I never thought about.

That aspect of this guy and coming to him with this.

And they're not even sharing it with you.

It's just communication.

But, you know, the guy at the front gate is everybody walks in every now.

You got a little notebook and you take a pearl from the.

You got to be listening and you got to have an open mind and and want to get better.

You talked about communication.

How do you think about communicating with clarity?

When you talk about communication, what I learned on the court.

Let's say as a coach, I talk too much and it affected the flow at practice.

So through working through an interpreter and somebody that doesn't speak another language that we don't speak the same language, the process to teach was ridiculously tough.

So you started one teaching in phrases, passing lane, driving lane instead of a long winded situation.

And then you'd go to say something.

You'd hold it and go and they ain't worth it.

Pick your moment.

So, again, communication and picking your spots is huge.

And then, too, in that environment, I was in a situation where they came to me as a coach.

I was on the receiving end a lot more than I am normally.

Like here, it all came from me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK, what do you got?

I'm open.

I'll listen back.

We're there.

It came from the other direction a lot more.

And I think that's been really helpful for me.

I'll have an open ear and wait or I'll throw something out.

And then it's much better to take in information, especially early, than give it out.

It's got to be two ways.

But again, I go to this national thing.

I learn right away that that group, I want to hear a lot more than I want to say.

And I got a lot of value in the country.

We got a lot of value out of me listening as opposed to running my mouth.

Yeah, and incredible leadership to be able to do that in real time, Gorge, isn't it?

When your temptation is to share your wisdom as much as you've got it there.

Collaboration, what does that mean to you and how do you go about it?

Probably always had that mindset of collaboration, but probably wasn't real good at it.

And again, you go through every experience.

And I learned.

I learned so much of 12 years in China.

And I saw how they operated.

And there was a lot of things I liked.

But there was things that I go, no, I'm kind of like that.

And I don't want to be like that.

And I give you an example of that aspect, the head coach, my way or the highway.

That's how that thing operates.

Players, they don't have an opinion.

One, it's a.

It's a sign of respect there and it's you lose face if they're it's kind of a sign that you don't know you're vulnerable.

You don't know what you're talking about.

There's kind of that pressure on the guy.

And what's coming back to this again, those meetings and everything and taking a deep breath and going, wow, you know, I'm on the outside and I think different, but now I'm seeing it, it is extreme.

And so when I came back.

If you said that I worked with some guys prior that I came back to, they would say, you know, you had a little bit of that in you, but you've gotten a lot better that way.

It's really important that that you do involve those people listen.

And also, it's a two way after you take it all in.

One of the things in my age is mentoring.

You listen.

And then if you know, there's certain times you go, hey, man, I'm dead against that, to be honest with you.

But for this reason, this reason and this reason, and I would definitely go about it this way and to be truthful with you now we're going, I'm kind of demanding that it's the same with it.

At the end of it, you are the head guy and you take in and maybe eight out of 10 things, you get three pearls and you maybe get one that you go, no, man, I don't want that happening, not here.

And for the, and you explain the reasons and we move on.

But you're happier feeling as though as a leader, people around you, you've got that.

You've got that voice now.

Is it make you feel like a, you know, you're a better coach by understanding that more now?

Correct.

And not, not only that, I do feel as, as you get my age and you got guys coming to your program, there's a responsibility is especially as a staff in every form.

I take pride in these guys getting better at their craft.

And I said to you before a real important aspect of, of this is that the coaches that get spit out down my back.

Are competent and they do well.

And that's, you know, again, I look at a guy like Greg Popovich and you talk about Patty Mills, but look at staff.

The NBA is just cluttered with people that have played under him.

And now we're head coaches and doing great things in the competition.

I've been asking this one question of the leaders that I've been talking to and a question without notice for you, but who is the greatest leader in your life?

It'd have to be my dad.

It'd have to be my dad.

Everything that I believe in and, and respect and, you know, my life, all the things I'm grateful for and thankful.

It comes through him.

And you realize, you know, a lot about a man by it, you know, and I, as coaching, you know, you meet a kid and you deal with a kid and then you get introduced to the parents.

And I have a great feel for what the parents are going to be like.

When you've dealt.

Dealt with the sun and you go, man, this kid's a special kid, an unbeliever, and it doesn't fall far from the tree.

And all the good things that I feel about that have happened in my life have been from, you know, the lessons learned when you're really, really young.

And he was tireless in his, in his work and development and about all the things that are important.

And, uh, yeah, I, it's, it's not even close.

It's, it, it's, it's there.

What a wonderful way to finish and what a wonderful start in life for you, Gorge, to start and finish with, uh, with your dad and his, uh, his leadership.

And, and our hope is that people listening to this get a sense of, uh, how you can positively impact your environment.

You don't have to be a champion coach or a CEO of a business.

You can have an impact on those around you as Brian Gorgian did.

What you achieved, man.

What you have achieved over such a long period of time is remarkable, but we're fresh from the Olympics.

It made us all smile.

It felt like the world needed what you guys were able to deliver and the other athletes around the world.

Our Australian athletes were brilliant, but the language and the, the sense of sharing and community, mate, was just quite, uh, quite special.

So thank you so much for your time.

I look, I look forward to you back, back out of quarantine soon.

And, uh, once again, we, uh, we're just incredibly proud of what you achieved.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, mate.

Empowering Leaders was presented by me, Luke Darcy.

Produced by Matt Dwyer with audio production by Darcy Thompson.

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