Brian Goorjian to social trolls: 'I don't care'

Former Australian Boomers and now Sydney Kings head coach Brian Goorjian has a simple message for social media keyboard critics: 'I don't care'.

"After the Olympics I put a line through social media," Goorjian, 71, told Code Sports Basketball reporter Matt Logue.

"So when I walked into this at the Kings, I don’t give a sh*t what people are saying.

"I learnt valuable lessons from the Games and now it’s just head down and bum up.

"So what the people from interstate say, what social media says, it doesn’t matter.

"I’ve also told the players, because they go through it as well. Look at what happened at Tasmania this season (with players’ families copping online abuse)."

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JackJumpers players and their families were abused online after their poor start to the NBL25 season.

After the reigning champions upset 83-64 (Game Centre) the then ladder-leading New Zealand Breakers in Hobart in November head coach Scott Roth made an emotion plea to the league and fans after a pregnant players wife was targeted by a disgraceful troll.

"We have a player whose wife is pregnant and they (people online) wished for a miscarriage," Roth said.

"We have a lot of distraught players and family members, wives and spouses and children," he said.

"We have been attacked brutally through social media to the point where it is ugly."

JackJumpers CEO Christine Finnegan said players had reported the harassment to Basketball Australia’s integrity unit.

"(The unit has) advised that they were giving this their highest priority to look into this matter," she said.

"The club has offered its unconditional support to all members of our club who feel violated by this behaviour."

Roth said criticism about his coaching, the team’s playing style or roster decisions were inbounds but personal attacks were simply unacceptable.

"It is coming from gamblers and people around the world and from general fans that feel they can spew whatever they want out of their mouths," Roth added.

"When you start using vulgarity and you start attacking family members and kids and photos on Facebook … it’s too much.

"It’s just a basketball game. It’s just entertainment. Who cares at the end of the day?

We’re just here to entertain, play as hard as we can. This is not life or death. It’s disgusting."

Goorjian came under fire from the keyboard critics after Australia was knocked out in the quarter finals of the Olympic Games basketball tournament in Paris earlier this year. The six-time NBL championship winning coach and six-time NBL Coach of the Year quit the tech platforms there and then.

No doubt, if Goorjian had of kept his social accounts active he would have seen the barrage of criticism from keyboard "experts" about the Sydney Kings performance in NBL25.

The Kings were pre-emptive favourites before the season started but were out of the gates slowly. They are now 9-7 after Round 11, going 3-2 in their last five: WLWLW.

Sydney rolled the New Zealand Breakers — in New Zealand — 98-83 (Game Centre) without Bul Kuol (knee) and both Jaylen Adams and Cam Oliver coming off the battling illness.

"It was really a parallel from practice into the game today," Goorjian said.

"I just feel like I’ve been coaching kind of a grumpy, worn group, and we got to get in our own bed, sit, practice and do some positive things together on the floor.

"Tonight we had both imports out for the practice sessions, so we had that young Australian group working together for three or four days and there was just an energy and camaraderie about that.

"That’s how we started the game and I thought it was good for the imports to see that, because I think they’ve been feeling like they’ve had to carry the load a bit.

“We came back (from Melbourne) and then we had a day off, then we were into practice and when we rolled, three of them were out (Oliver, Adams and Kuol).

"It led to, 'let’s just make sure we have good practice, let’s just keep moving forward'.

"We’ve had a lot of issues in that form and I think it’s to do with our schedule. Our schedule’s been incredibly rough."

Goorjian is optimistic the Kings have turned the corner — despite what social media trolls think or say because to Goorjian it's irrelevant because he's not there to read any of the feedback from self-proclaimed experts.

The Kings get to go again against the Brisbane Bullets (Game Centre) at home in Round 12 on Sunday, December 15, 2024 at Qudos Bank Arena.

— Additional reporting sourced from AAP and NBL.com.au